For centuries, different religions, tribes and many communities have lived in India. The rituals and traditions followed by these communities go a long way in forming the weird and bizarre traditions we see in India today.
Mythologies have always been an integral part of the traditions followed in India and one such tradition based on mythology is “Dhinga Gavar” in which you can see locals dressed as gods and goddesses, in the fascinating city of Jodhpur. Now there is a very interesting story behind this tradition, one day, Lord Shiva changed its form into that of a shoemaker teasing his wife, Goddess Parvati. In her turn, the goddess changed into tribal woman teasing Lord Shiva, and thereafter it became tradition and is observed every year from the first day of Chaitra month (New Year month of the Hindu calendar) for a total of 16 days. Many single men can be seen wandering the streets during this tradition, as there is a belief that if they are hit by the people dressed as gods and goddesses during the ritual, they will soon get married. It’s a really strange tradition. You do not think !?
There are millions of people who are afraid of crawling and crawling reptiles like snakes and lizards. And then there is “Nag Panchami”, a famous and bizarre tradition in India, in which snakes are worshiped and fed milk on the fifth day of the Shravan month (Hindu lunar calendar). On this day, the temple priests sprinkle beautiful flower petals and other auspicious objects on the serpents as a token of thanks. The biggest celebrations are organized by the villagers of Baltis Shirale in Maharashtrapresumably with a large group of snakes. Now, to complete this tradition, you have to be either a snake lover or a daredevil!
While “Cannibalism” is considered taboo by the whole world, even then there are the Aghoris who are followers of the cult of Lord Shiva and believe that everything provided by mother nature is consumable. They live near crematoria and rivers, where they can easily find corpses to feed on, and are often shunned from public appearances. They smear themselves with the ashes of the dead as part of the purification process. Would you be interested in meeting the Aghoris coated with the ashes of the dead?
You may have attended many weddings in your life, but have you ever seen a frog wedding between “two wild frogs“, attended by a whole village and that too in the presence of a priest! Well, there is a village in the Jorhat District of assamwhere the villagers in order to please”Barun Devta“, the god of rain, performs a wedding ceremony between two wild frogs according to all Hindu wedding traditions. They believe that it will rain heavily in the days following the wedding, thus ending the dry spell. isn’t it fun to see frogs getting married in full-fledged Hindu marriage traditions?
What will happen if a huge stone falls on your head? You may end up lying on a bed in the hospital. Would you believe it if someone told you that there is a tradition in India where people purposely get hit with coconuts on the head? ‘Aadi Festival’ follows the tradition of breaking coconuts on people’s heads by the temple priest in a remote village of Tamil Nadu. They think it will please the divinityand in return, they will be blessed with good health and prosperity. It is a painful tradition.
If you have young children, you would often playfully throw them up in the air. But in Solapur, Maharashtramany relatives can be seen throw their newborns as high as 50 feet in the air as part of a ritual to bless children with a healthy life. The ritual is usually performed by the parents who have prayed at the Baba Umer Darghafor their pregnancy. Now, that’s a pretty weird tradition that you can only witness in India.
People do the weirdest things to please their gods and get blessings for doing certain traditions. Every year in the Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesha rather strange festival “Bani“ is hosted by Devaragattu Temple who fall during the most popular festival Dusshera. Worshipers can be seen beating each other with thick sticks from midnight until dawn. All this is performed to celebrate the victory of Mala Malleshwara (a form of Lord Shiva), on a demon.
Now you have firmly acquainted yourself with the most bizarre traditions of magnificent India.
