Every year, a small town in southern Mexico stages one of the world's most unusual wedding ceremonies. A mayor dresses for the occasion, a bride wears a white gown adorned with flowers, music fills the streets, and hundreds of residents gather to celebrate. The only difference is that the bride is not a person but a female caiman, a crocodile-like reptile native to Central and South America. At first glance, the ceremony appears bizarre, but for the people of San Pedro Huamelula in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, it is a sacred tradition that symbolises harmony with nature, peace between Indigenous communities and hopes for prosperity in the year ahead.
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