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Two-year-old 'married' to a dog
In a bizzare instance of superstition, a two-year-old boy was "married" to a dog in Orissa to "ward off evil spirits".
In a bizzare instance of superstition, a two-year-old boy was "married" to a dog in Orissa to "ward off evil spirits", a media report said Wednesday.
According to Oriya web portal Odisha.com, the "marriage" ritual was performed Monday evening by Munda tribals of Patarapur village in the coastal Jajpur district, some 130 km from here.
The groom, Sagula, was brought in a flower-decked rickshaw by the family of the bridegroom amid bursting of fire crackers to the village temple.
He tied the knot with the dog as the priest chanted hymns, the report said.
The ceremony was followed by a feast for at least 150 villagers.
"We did this to ward off evil spirits as a tooth was growing from Sagulu's upper gum and in our community we consider this as a bad omen," the child's father, Sanarumala Singh, was quoted as saying.
"The bride spent just one night here. Not inside the room, but on the verandah," he clarified.
There are numerous instances of such "weddings" in rural Orissa where literacy rates are low.
