Posted on 01/17/2009 4:52:28 PM PST by nickcarraway
In a bizarre ritual, two minor girls, both seven, from the remote Pallipudupet village in Tamil Nadu's Villupuram district were married off to frogs on Friday night. The ceremony, an annual feature during the Pongal (harvest) festival, is conducted "to prevent the outbreak of mysterious diseases in the village''.
The girls, Vigneswari and Masiakanni, dressed up in traditional bridal finery -- gilded sarees and gold jewellery -- married the frog 'princes' in separate, elaborate ceremonies at two different temples in the presence of hundreds of villagers.
Amidst chanting of vedic hymns, the temple priests garlanded the brides and tied the magalsutras on behalf of the frogs pronouncing the two as wives of the amphibians before the sacred fire at the auspicious hour.
The villagers threw themselves into the ceremonies with gusto. While residents living in the western part of the village acted as relatives of the brides and those from the eastern part play-acted as relatives of the grooms. The ceremonies had all the usual elements of a traditional marriage including a sumptuous feast.
However, unlike the fairy tale `Frog Prince', where the ugly toad turns into a handsome prince when the princess kisses it, the Villupuram village belles bid their amphibian grooms goodbye and lead a normal life thereafter. As for the terrified frogs, they are thrown back into the temple ponds after the ceremony.
Earlier the 'relatives' of the brides came in a procession to the grooms' houses in the eastern part of the village to fix the marriage and later went to the temple pond to catch the frogs. The frog princes were tied to long sticks decorated with garlands for the marriage ceremonies.
An elderly woman of the village said the ritual was practised traditionally for several generations to ward off evil spirits and diseases from the village.
Villupuram district collector R Palaniswamy told TOI that he had deputed a team led by the district social welfare officer to visit the village and submit a detailed report. "The district administration proposes to evolve comprehensive schemes to motivate and enlighten the villagers against such evil and ignorant practises," he said. But all these years the strange practice has been going on unchecked.
“Beats what I had to go through on my wedding day.”—Hilary Clinton
Better to be hopped on by a frog than a randy old seikh.
It was 24 in this country, or colony, anyway.
There were a great many thousands killed in Europe during the witch crazes of the 14th thru 17th centuries. Estimates, outside the millions put forward by the modern-day Wiccans, who have a serious axe to grind, range from 40,000 to 100,000.
It was not a bright shining moment for Christianity.
Miss Piggy would not be pleased. lol
That’s better, he belongs with Miss PPiggy. BTW, that dress on the woman in the other picture is TACKY!
I meant Piggy, where did that extra P come from? lol
Next thing you know they’ll be asking a ground hog when winter will end. ;^)
“There were a great many thousands killed in Europe during the witch crazes of the 14th thru 17th centuries. Estimates, outside the millions put forward by the modern-day Wiccans, who have a serious axe to grind, range from 40,000 to 100,000.”
That was the Roman Catholic church. Not the Protestants.
They are, but they throw the Frenchmen back into the pond after the marriage ceremony.
Witches were never drowned. A real witch would have floated. Therefore, they were found innocent, because they drowned.
“A real witch would have floated. Therefore, they were found innocent, because they drowned.”
For the sake of those on this thread (not yourself) eager to equate Christians with those who wed innocent children to frogs, I’d like to point out that the “standard” of “witches float, the innocent drown,” is found nowhere in the Bible.
Nor is torturing anyone for any reason, including witchcraft, the Inquisition notwithstanding.
When we stray from the Bible, we err.
Frog’s legs for the bridal supper?
Actually witchcraft executions were much more common in northern (Protestant) Europe, and there were many times more witches executed than heretics (although the Catholic countries were more likely to execute heretics than the Protestant countries were). In any case, far more people were killed for religious reasons in the 20th century than any previous period, even if you don't count the Holocaust under the Nazis.
Inaccurate.
The peak of the craze was in the 17th century. It was heaviest in border regions between the two religions, especially in SW Germany and adjacent regions. It is probable Catholics killed more "witches," perhaps at least partially because they controlled more territory and population in the area.
So, perhaps, it is not surprising that the dominant reason for sending someone to the stake in Protestant lands was witchcraft: treason, not to an earthly representative of God, but to God himself. But there were several reasons why persecution for witchcraft had widespread support: belief in witchcraft was widespread; the devil was as much a part of life as God. To be against persecution for witchcraft was to be "in league with the devil" or in today's language, "soft on sin." In other cases, opportunists used the witchcraft trials to eliminate one's opponents, to silence critics, to extort money from potential victims, to strip dissenters of their lands and other possessions, to force women into unwanted sexual liaisons, to rid the community of old, frail, sick, or otherwise economically unproductive women, to enable a man to rid himself of an unwanted wife in an age when very, very few people could attain a divorce, and to acquire political power. In a sense, then, the witchtrials in northern Europe served the same function as the Inquisition for heresy in other parts of Europe and were used by both the Catholic and Protestant churches.
http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/gage/inquis/c_reform.html
Three women were executed in Protestant England in 1682, the last in that country. A woman was executed in Protestant Scotland in 1726.
The last person to be convicted of witchcraft in Britain was Helen Duncan, in 1944!
http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/Scotland-History/HelenDuncan.htm
Sorry, dude, you can't offload this one entirely onto the papists.
Well, there is that whole bit about flogging with less than 40 strokes, not to mention stoning as the primary means of execution, which depending on how it is done can be a very drawn-out method of torture.
Inaccurate. The best statistics I've been able to come up with have the Catholics ahead by a ratio of about 1.5:1 in number of trials, and about 3:1 in number of executions. This may have been at least partially due to their controlling more population in the areas most heavily affected by the hysteria.
BTW, the history of the hysteria indicates that it most definitely welled up from the people, who demanded support from the clergy and political leaders, who initially were skeptical and resistant, but over time entered with enthusiasm into the hunt.
At all periods during the hysteria, there were prominent theologians and other churchmen among both Catholics and Protestants who denounced the superstition.
So what you're saying is...if she weighs less than a duck, that means she's made of wood...and so we know she's made of wood...therefore she floats...which means...
She's a Witch! Burn her!
Flogging is not prescribed in scripture. It is described, just like crucifixion, but not prescribed.
Biblical justice required restitution or death. Some exceptions included the possibility of marriage for fornication, and the establishment of cities of refuge for involuntary manslaughter.
Death was to be by stoning. They could not electrocute nor use electric chairs nor lethal injection nor a firing squad. Stoning is most closely resembled today by a firing squad.
If you support the death penalty (?), I don’t know how you would prefer God implement it. Slit the throat?
At any rate, should you transgress the law in Israel, on the evidence of 2 or 3 witnesses, before a judge regularly admonished to be fair and impartial, you’d have had to pay restitution or be stoned. There was no order for torture, never was. That’s man’s invention.
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