Unusual custom
Kisses for the crocodile: Mayor in Mexico marries female caiman
The Mayor of San Pedro Huamelula, Victor Hugo Sosa, during the wedding ceremony with a crocodile wearing a wedding dress. The ritual is a traditional custom in the Mexican village and is said to bring good luck.
© Mario Jimenez / AFP
Marrying a crocodile? The unusual ritual is said to bring luck and is traditionally celebrated in a Mexican village. Also this year the mayor of San Predo Huamelula married a crocodile.
In an unusual custom, the mayor of a small town in southern Mexico has a female Crocodile married. “I accept this responsibility because we love each other,” said the mayor, Víctor Hugo Sosa, during the celebrations, during which he also kissed the animal on the head. The ritual, which has been going on for 230 years, is said to bring prosperity and happiness to the people.
Marriage to a female caiman: ritual is said to bring good luck
Sosa is the mayor of San Pedro Huamelula, a place inhabited by the Chontal indigenous people. Named Alicia Adriana, the reptile is a caiman, an alligator-like swamp dweller native to Mexico and Central America.
Marriage between a male and a female caiman has been celebrated in San Pedro Huamelula for more than 230 years. The ritual commemorates the day two indigenous groups made peace.
According to tradition, the conflict between the groups was resolved when a Chontal king – now represented by the mayor – married a princess of the Huave indigenous group, now represented by the female caiman.
San Pedro Huamelula Mayor Victor Hugo Sosa kisses a female caiman. Marrying a crocodile is a centuries-old custom in the village.
© Rusvel Rasgado / AFP
The wedding connects both sides with “Mother Earth”, explained Jaime Zárate, the chronicler of the place. With this, the Chontal people ask for rain and “the germination of the seed”. As part of the ritual, Joel Vásquez, a local fisherman, threw his net that the marriage would bring “good fishing so that there may be prosperity and ways may be found of living in peace”.
Dances with the crocodile: This is how the wedding celebration with the reptile goes
Before the wedding ceremony, the female caiman is taken from house to house for residents to hold and dance with. The reptile wears a green skirt, a colourful, hand-embroidered tunic and a headdress made of ribbons and sequins. Later, the crocodile is put into a bridal costume. The animal’s snout remains tied.
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After the wedding, the mayor dances with his bride to the sounds of traditional music. “We’re happy because we’re celebrating the unification of two cultures. People are happy,” Sosa told AFP. How happy the animal is with this tradition does not seem to matter much.