SRIKAKULAM: Following the decades-old tradition of their village, as many as 100 couples from Nuvvalarevu, a remote fisherman village of Vajrapukotturu mandal in Srikakulam district tied knots during a mass marriage programme on Sunday.
The residents have a tradition of getting the girls married in the same village and no marriage is performed individually, rather a mass marriage programme is organised in every three years.
With the muhurtham for the marriages being set by the priests at 11:31 pm on Sunday, all 200 families in the village took part in the grand event for which the houses were decorated with illuminations, huge banners were erected, apart from the huge marriage pandal.
From the morning, a lot of people from the region have started making a beeline to be the witness of this peculiar tradition.
At around 10 am, brides, wearing garlands of currency notes, were taken in a processions to the village deity where they offered prayers. Following the custom, betel, cigarettes and gutkas were offered to the village deity.
The grooms tied the holy threads (talibottu) to the brides, amid chanting of mantras.
“We are proud of this tradition and our children too respect it and choose their brides from the same village,” said Nuvvalarevu sarpanch Behara Dharma Rao.