Whaaatt!!!! Villagers Dig Up Dead Bodies of Relatives, Wash and Take Them for a Walk to Celebrate ‘Festival of the Walking Dead’ (Photos)

You may like your new yam festival or masquerade festival, but in Indonesia there is a tribe that loves a special festival which ‘re-unites’ them with their dead loved ones. It is called the Festival of the Walking Dead.

A tribe in Indonesian has held a festival of the walking dead in which they dig up the corpses of their relatives and friends.

They open the coffins, let the corpses dry out then wash them, groom them and dress them up before walking with them through the village (Picture: Caters)

Yuli Sepri/ Caters News: (PICTURED: Manene ritual at Panggala Village, North Toraja District, Indonesia Monday.

Yuli Sepri/ Caters News: (PICTURED: Marten Labi caress the hair of her mothers body, Yohana Liling (died in 1997) during the Manene ritual at Panggala Village, North Toraja District, Indonesia

They then wash, groom and dress them up before walking with them for good harvest.

Every year, families in Toraja in the highlands of South Sulawesi, exhume the bodies of their dead relatives and friends to reunite with them in an annual celebration called Ma’nene.

Even the bodies of babies and children are dug up to celebrate the ritual that last for three days.

The families open the coffins and let the bodies dry for sometime.

After that, they wash, groom and dress up the mummies in new fancy clothes and take them for a walk through the village in straight lines in much zombie-like fashion.

All this is done while smiling from ear-to-ear because crying and mourning is prohibited.

‘It is our way of respecting the dead. There is no mourning. It is a moment of joy for us because we reunite with our dead relatives.

‘We try to honour them and in return get their blessings for good harvest,’ said one of the villagers.

Yuli Sepri/ Caters News: (PICTURED: The relatives of the corpse take selfie with the exhume body in an annual celebration called Manene in Indonesia.)

After the walk, the villagers sacrifice buffaloes and pigs as an offering for the dead’s free walk to heaven.

Yuli Sepri/ Caters News – (Pictured: A man lights a cigarette for the exhumed body of his father and dressing up his mother)

The bizarre tradition had started centuries ago when an animal hunter had found a decaying corpse but dressed him in his shirt and gave him a proper burial. He believed after the burial he was blessed with good fortune.

The Trojan people adapted the story and started celebrating the death of their deceased.

Source:

metro