VIJAYAWADA: The availability of auspicious mahurats in April, May and June and the steep fall in Covid-19 cases has led to a massive surge in weddings. There are eight auspicious timings in April, 11 in May and 13 in June.
The lack of mahurats from the last week of February to the second week of April resulted in many weddings getting postponed. The auspicious mahurats are available from April 14 to June 23. Thousands of weddings are scheduled on April 14, 16, 17, 21, 22 and 24 in Andhra Pradesh due the mahurats.
Similarly, the mahurats are available on May 3, 4, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 20, 21, 22 and 25. In June the auspicious muhurats are available on 1, 3, 5, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22 and 23. The purohits stated that over 1 lakh marriages are scheduled in all districts of AP for these auspicious mahurats.
The Covid-19 infections which used to range from 10,000 to 15,000 every day earlier have now come down to only five in 26 districts of AP on Thursday indicating a return to normalcy.
Interestingly, there is a huge demand for purohits (priests) to perform marriages. The priests are demanding Rs 30,000 to Rs 60,000 for a marriage according to the mahurut and several priests are busy performing two to five marriages a day due to the demand. Further, all marriage and function halls have been reserved forcing several parents to opt for hotels and open places to perform wedding of their children.
Pundit K.S. Somayajulu said since the pandemic has largely been brought under control the availability of the auspicious mahurats for three months is helping parents to perform weddings. He recalled that summers are famous for marriages due to holidays and suitable weather. However, it was not possible due to Covid-19 over the past two years. He said that majority of people were vaccinated and that helped to contain the pandemic.
An event organiser, D. Raju said that all function halls have been booked during auspicious mahurats for April, May and June. He further said that majority of crafts associated with marriages like decorators, tent houses, caterers, cooks, florists, photographers, videographers, electricians, manpower suppliers, travels, textile merchants, costumers, make-up professionals, purohits, vegetable suppliers, printers and designers who faced hardships over the past two years are now recovering financially.
