The mayor of a small town in Mexico married an alligator at a traditional wedding ceremony on Thursday. San Pedro Huamelula Mayor Victor Hugo Sosa kissed the beast’s snout—which had been tied shut to avoid an unwanted kiss in return—in what is believed to be a centuries-old, pre-Hispanic tradition to bring abundance. “We ask nature for enough rain, for enough food, that we have fish in the river,” Sosa said during the ritual, which likely dates back to Oaxaca state’s Chontal and Huave communities. The alligator, for its part, was referred to as “little princess” and was dressed in a bespoke bridal gown for the occasion. Its symbolic purpose is to represent mother earth, with her marriage to a local leader symbolizing the union between humanity and the divine. Elia Edith Aguilar, known as the godmother who organized the wedding, said she’d spent a long time fretting about what the gator should wear. “It’s a very beautiful tradition,” she added.