The mayor of a small Mexican town married the alligator bride in a colorful ceremony to traditional music, and the revelers danced while begging the leader to seal the nuptials with a kiss.
San Pedro Huamelula Mayor Victor Hugo Sosa thanked him more than once during Thursday’s wedding and bent down to place his lips on the tiny alligator’s nose, which was bound to prevent unwanted bites.
The wedding ritual probably dates back to pre-Hispanic centuries among the Chontal and Huave indigenous communities in the state of Oaxaca, as a prayer asking for nature’s bounty.
“We want enough rain from nature, enough food, so we’ll have fish in the river,” said Sosa, mayor of the small fishing village on Oaxaca’s Pacific coast.
Oaxaca, located in the poor south of Mexico, is the country’s richest in terms of indigenous culture and is home to many groups that have maintained their language and traditions.
The ancient ritual in San Pedro Huamelula, now mixed with Catholic spirituality, involves dressing the crocodile in a white wedding dress.
Known as the little princess, the seven-year-old reptile is believed to be a god representing mother earth, and her marriage to the local leader symbolizes the union of humans with the divine.
source: Noticias
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