Mayor 'marries' alligator wearing a wedding dress in bizarre traditional ritual

03 July 2023 , 10:22

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Mayor of San Pedro Huamelula Victor Sosa kisses a reptile during the traditional Wedding (Image: Luis Villalobos/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

A mayor in Mexico has 'married' a female alligator-like creature he calls "Little Princess" in a traditional ceremony said to bring good fortune to his tribe.

Mayor Victor Hugo Sosa wed the caiman reptile, an alligatorid, called Alicia Adriana and said the pair "loved each other".

The ceremony happened in the town of San Pedro Huamelula, where indigenous Chontal people live in the Oaxaca state of southern Mexico.

"It is the union of two cultures. The union of the Huaves and the Chontales [indigenous communities]", Mayor Victor Hugo Sosa told reporters.

Victor said during the ritual: "I accept responsibility because we love each other. That is what is important. You can't have a marriage without love... I yield to marriage with the princess girl."

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Indigenous villagers take part in the traditional Lizard Wedding in the village of San Pedro Huamelula (Luis Villalobos/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

He was pictured carrying the reptile through the town with her mouth bound shut before being passed around the villagers who were dancing with her to celebrate the matrimony.

He was also pictured kissing the animal on the head.

Princess was wearing a green skirt, a colourful Mexican hand-embroidered tunic and a headdress of ribbons and sequins.

She is later dressed in a white bride's costume complete with a veil and taken to the local town hall for the wedding

Marriage between a man and a female caiman has taken place there for 230 years to commemorate the peace between two indigenous groups co-existing happily.

Mayor of San Pedro Huamelula Victor Sosa (R) holds the reptile with villagers (Luis Villalobos/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

The wedding allows the sides to “link with what is the emblem of Mother Earth, asking the all-powerful for rain, the germination of the seed, all those things that are peace and harmony for the Chontal man,” explained Jaime Zarate, a chronicler of San Pedro Huamelula.

The seven-year-old crocodile is thought to represent a deity linked with mother earth and their marriage will bring prosperity to the community.

Rachel Hagan