With the soaring mercury level, villagers in Assam’s Sivasagar district arranged the wedding of two frogs so as to please rain gods. The age-old ritual is known as Vekuli Biya and was performed by the Dhamdhuli villagers on August 26th, 2019 as the locals are of the opinion that this will bring rain.

After struggling for months due to devastating floods, the situation has worsened due to the heat. To appease the rain gods, two frogs – a male and a female – were brought and elaborate wedding arrangements were made with over a hundred guests attending the ceremony.

The village people took up different responsibilities for the wedding. If some went to fetch water for the haldi ceremony amid the sound of uruli, the others were seen singing traditional biya naams and decorating the mandap. Young girls and boys were seen dancing to tunes of dhul.

“We are really excited for the wedding. We sew wedding outfits for the bride and groom. We have arranged food and drinks for the guests too,” said a village girl while talking to TIME8.

The marriage ceremony was performed as per Assamese customs and rituals. “Organising the marriage of frogs is part of our folk culture. Earlier also we married off frogs to please Varun Devta and we got the results. We are expecting heavy rainfall in a day or two,” said a villager.