Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Snake Wedding Draws Crowd in Cambodia

   VOA News 03 January 2011
   A  Cambodian  man holds his female pet python called Chamreun (L) as a
   woman  holds her male pet python called Krong Pich (R) in a cage after
   a  wedding  ceremony  in Kandal province, 20 kilometers south of Phnom
   Penh on January 3, 2011.

Photo: AFP

   A  Cambodian man holds his female pet python as a woman holds her male
   pet  python  in a cage after a wedding ceremony in Kandal province, 20
   kilometers south of Phnom Penh on Jan. 3, 2011.

   Hundreds of Cambodians have joined an unusual wedding ceremony for two
   pythons whom they hope will bring good luck to their villages.
   In Monday's ceremony, villagers in southern Cambodia's Kandal province
   wedded  a female python named Chamrouen and a male python named Kroung
   Pich  and placed them in the same cage. The new couple also received a
   blessing from Buddhist monks.
   Many  Cambodians  subscribe  to  animism - the belief that spirits can
   inhabit living creatures and inanimate objects.
   The  owner  of the female python says villagers performed the ceremony
   on  the  recommendation of fortune tellers, who said the snakes belong
   together and keeping them apart could bring bad luck.
   Neth  Vy  said  he  had raised Chamrouen in his family home since 1994
   after  finding  the  then-tiny  python  while  fishing.  People  in  a
   neighboring village caught the male python last month.

.