Famadihana
The Famadihana is not a creature but the honored ancestor spirit at the center of the Malagasy "turning of the bones" ceremony, a funerary tradition practiced primarily by the Merina and Betsileo peoples of Madagascar's central highlands. Known as razana (ancestors), these spirits remain intimately involved in the daily lives of their descendants long after death. The famadihana ceremony occurs roughly every five to seven years, when families exhume the bodies of their ancestors from family crypts, rewrap them in fresh silk shrouds (lambamena), and dance with the corpses while carrying them ov