Madagascar is at the crossroads of different cultures, the island is the scene of traditional ceremonies such as exhumation. They are practiced every year from July to September. This period coincides with the cold season of the Highlands, the temperature oscillates between 0 and 20 degrees and this is one of the reasons why the people of the Highlands perform these ancestral rites. This period represents the beginning of the rice season, the end of the last harvests, the incomes and the return of the workers to their land. It is a prosperous season and conducive to starting festivities.
The exhumation or the turning over of the dead symbolizes a renewal but also a pact with the ancestors. A revival because it is the beginning of the agricultural season and the farmers are asking the “Nature” and ancestors to watch over them and bless them for the new growing season. A pact, because, through this rite, the living take care of the eternal home of the ancestor.
Exhumation comes after a whole process. The family must collect for a while to be able to honor the memory of the ancestors. By performing the rite, one must celebrate it with pomp. A group, at least, of local music, food for all the guests, to drink for all these heads of guests who go beyond the limits of the village, all the administrative procedures leading to the opening of the family tomb. All this induces expenses and for this peasant population, we can go so far as to go into debt and sell land, rice fields, just to be able to do as the neighbors do. The duty of memory imposes but a culture of "doing better than the neighbor" is very anchored in these cold lands of the center of the island.
We decide with the diviner of the auspicious day of the celebration, the guests arrive, we must feed and entertain them. The tomb is opened, gifts are offered on this occasion, they are collected in the form of meat on a leg, a sum of money or a shroud. The bodies are cleaned and each family puts the ancestors back in new clothes (shrouds) then they are brought back to the village where we will celebrate for a whole night. On this occasion, we remember all the moments spent with the ancestor during his lifetime. A one-night drinking spree that takes them to the morning where a last meal is shared with all the guests. After the sun sets in the afternoon, the ancestors are escorted back to their stone dwelling. A celebration that revives memories and above all the attachment to a family, belonging to an origin of a people. A somewhat barbaric rite for some and morbid for others, but the people of the Malagasy lands are attached to it. Even families from the cities gladly take part in these ceremonies from another era. The "Famadihana" remains an identity for this people who came from the crossroads.

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