Newari girls attend marriage ceremony

Newari girls attending a ‘bel’ marriage ceremony in Kathmandu yesterday. Bel marriage is a ceremony in Newar community in Nepal in which pre-adolescent girls are ‘married’ to bel fruit (wooden apple), ensuring that the girl becomes and remains fertile. Newar community believes that a Newari girl should marry three times in her lifetime, with the bel, the sun and then a human being.