Marriage For Dead Babies
The family of Chadappa and Shobha, two babies who died years ago, have conducted marriage for them.
The now-married couple died almost 30 years ago as babies.
However, their family only married them this August in line with their tradition known as “Pretha Kalyanam” (marriage of the dead).
During the marriage, the two were represented by clothes.
Pretha Kalyanam” (marriage of the dead) is practised by a few Indian coastal communities in states such as Kerela and Karnataka and other countries like China, Japan, South Sudan and France.
In an interview, Shobha’s mother, Jayanthi Kulal, said,
“We are marrying off our eldest son soon, however before that, we wanted our deceased daughter (Shobha) to get married so that she will be happy and bless the family going forward.”
In India and other countries that practice marriage of the dead, they believe that people who died as babies or under 18 could come together in “spirit marriage” and complete the life cycle.
They also believe that if that is not done, they dead could get upset over being denied the chance to marry and bad luck may fall upon bereaved families and this may make life very difficult to the family of the deceased, such as difficulties for those attempting to conceive.
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