Frog Wedding to Combat Rain Shortage?
Yes, you read it right!
It's a nice day for a green wedding—but it's not the result of an amphibian romance, and neither of the frogs turned into a prince after being kissed.
Farmers in a northern district of Bangladesh called Ramchandrapur Village are turning to an unusual ceremony in a desperate bid to summon monsoon rains and protect their crops, officials say.
Frog weddings, a centuries-old rain-making ritual of celebrating the union of two frogs, are lavish ceremonies attended by villagers dressed in their best clothes.
Agence France Presse reported that 300 villagers attended a ceremony where the frog bride and groom were highly decorated with a red streak of color on their foreheads and carried in a special basket to a banana-leaf stage.
"Villagers sing songs, make offerings of rice and grass, then after the ceremony the married frogs are released in the village pond," one local attendee said.
Bangladesh has suffered its driest July in decades. Normally, monsoon rains sweep the country from June to September, and Bangladesh receives more than 75 percent of its annual rainfall during the summer months.
Scientists say Bangladesh is one of the countries worst hit by the effects of climate change, with extreme weather conditions such as drought and flooding likely to increase in future.
Watch a frog wedding