The ramblings of a Peace Corps trainee in Madagascar....

Sunday, September 25, 2011

My first Famadihana....

Lots of bones...



The new tomb (fasana) a few km from my village.  It took the family about 3 months to build it (I helped build the rock wall around it..), and it now houses about 40 skeletons.

One of many lambas (blankets) full exhumed bones of relatives.

Lambas full of bones....

It's not a Famadihana if there isn't a ridiculous amount of rice present, and the women aren't cooking every hour of the 3ish day event.

Vary sy laoka...the average size of the piece of meat you will receive at the event from the cow recently slaughtered. 

Congregating outside of one of the two new tombs.  The families dance in front of the tomb singing and carrying the bodies above their heads.

Add caption



The remains of the slaughtered cow.

Inside of one of the new tombs.  The relatives of the deceased arrange the bones...

My friend's husband.  He died 3 years ago.


1 comment:

  1. Great post and great pics. I was able to attend the famadihana ceremony in Madagascar a few years back. I thought it would be morbid, but it was happy and beautiful. I still remember that little girl dancing with her grandmother's corpse and crying. wow! It took me a few years to figure out how to write the story on my blog in a way that people would understand. Great job on the article!

    ReplyDelete