Frog’s wedding for rain. Daily Star Bangla

A frog wedding has been organized in Rajshahi in the hope of rain to get relief from the ongoing intense heat wave.

Puthia Upazila’s Tatarpur village yesterday celebrated this traditional ceremony.

Hundreds of villagers participated in the event from 12:30 noon to late night.

They caught two male and female frogs and married them.

The villagers danced the whole time singing ‘Allah Megh De Pani De Chhaya De Re Tui’. Colors are also played during the ceremony.

In the evening they take the married frogs in banana leaf boxes and go around the whole village. Dinner was organized by collecting rice, dal, chicken and spices from the villagers.

Habiba Khatun, a local girl, was the main organizer of the frog wedding ceremony and was supported by her family members and villagers.

Habiba told The Daily Star, ‘In the scorching heat, we family members were reminiscing about an incident in 2008. That year the villagers married two frogs and the next day it rained.’

‘So we have not decided to organize a frog wedding in the hope of rain,’ he said.

He also said, ‘It hasn’t rained since we performed the ceremony. But clouds have accumulated in Rajshahi and the temperature has already decreased.

Habiba’s uncle Yusuf Ali told the Daily Star, ‘The villagers are not getting water from the tube wells due to lack of rain. It is difficult to collect food water, irrigation water, the pond has dried up, mangoes and litchi are falling.’

‘I don’t know if it will rain or not. But we prayed for rain in the whole country. Our forefathers used to do the same and we followed them,’ he said.

According to the Rajshahi Meteorological Office, only 0.2 mm of rain fell on April 14 in the entire month of April and severe and moderate heat wave is going on in the region from the next day.

Today Tuesday, the maximum temperature in the city has risen to 40 degrees Celsius and for the last two days it was 41.5 degrees Celsius.