Human Flower Project
Orrington, MAINE USA
Murrieta, CALIFORNIA USA
Princeton, MAINE USA
Monday, June 06, 2005
Skip the Princess
Heat and drought in Northern India call for extraordinary measures: a toad wedding.
The newlyweds, before their release
Photo: Reuters
Amid fresh flowers and plastic leis, two toads were wed in Khochakandar, India, 225 miles north of Calcutta, yesterday. The amphibians were streaked with vermilion, serenaded by 400 guests singing hymns and blowing conch shells, and then “released into a pond.”
Reuters reports that in the past two weeks 100 people in Northern India, Bangladesh and Nepal have died in a heat wave over the region. “The southwest monsoon hit India’s southern coast on Sunday, about four days later than normal,” but rains will be several days in reaching the rest of the country, if they arrive at all.
Konica Mandal, one of the wedding planners, said, “Our forefathers used to organize marriages of toads to get sufficient rain for cultivation. We hope rain will be coming very soon.”