India, Oct. 23 -- The island where the dead don't stay buried

One doesn't simply stumble upon a Famadihana. The Turning Of The Bones ritual, practised by the Merina and Betsileo ethnic groups in Madagascar, involves a family exhuming the remains of their ancestors, rewrapping the corpses in fresh linens, invoking memories of the deceased through dance and music, and returning the bones and bodies to the tomb. Family members come from across the country, sometimes travelling for days, to attend.

To those outside the community, it seems macabre. To Mohammad Anas (@TravelWithAK), 26, who first heard about it three years ago, it was a cultural celebration he knew he simply had to see. "Death does not mean the person is excluded from the fam...