By Linda Tancs

Call it mat-TREE-mony—that is, a wedding of the arboreal kind. That’s right: a wedding of two trees, an oak and a holly. The unusual union is celebrated this time of year in southern Italy. Il Maggio di Accettura is an ancient pagan wedding festival celebrated in Accettura, a mountain village of about 2,000 people in the region of Basilicata. In case you were wondering, the oak is the groom and the holly is the bride. They’re cut, joined together (by the trunk of the oak and the top of the holly) and hoisted by a pulley over the main square of the town, followed by a procession of women wearing tiered headdresses made of candles and flowers. This centuries-old festival is undoubtedly one of the most unusual you’ll ever experience.

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