At boozy festival in Cuba, villagers ‘bury’ man alive in 30-year-old mock funeral tradition
SANTIAGO DE LAS VEGAS, Cuba – Cuban villagers have staged a mock funeral and burial of a living man in a boozy festival that’s an annual tradition in a small town near Havana.
A tractor pulls a trailer slowly through the streets carrying the man in a coffin and a four-piece band. Behind it, dozens of people dance to the music as a woman pretending to be the bereaved widow weeps loudly for the “deceased.”
“What a good man he was,” she cries.
Wednesday’s celebration in Santiago de las Vegas is known as the Burial of Pachencho. It has been held each Feb. 5 for the last 30 years.
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