Fecharese people

The Fecharese people are an ethnic group that is native to Fechara.

Pregnancy rituals
When a Fecharese person is pregnant, they take a strand of their hair, braid it and tie it around an egg. When the baby is born, the top of the egg is be broken, a couple seeds are placed inside and the egg is buried in a place of significance for the mother. The seeds represent a special quality the mother wishes to give to the baby. For example, mint represents inner peace, guava represent happiness and tamarind represents assertiveness.

In the case of a miscarriage, the egg is emptied, cleaned and filled with dried up aromatic leaves and duck duvet. Then, the egg is encased in clay, cooked and put in a funeral niche.

Funerals


After a Fecharese person dies, their body is prepared, starting with the hair. A thick tuft of the hair is braided, cut off and coated with a layer of wax. The rest of the hair is cut off and burried. After cutting the hair off, the body is cremated and its ashes are put in an urn which are later deposited into funeral niches.

The family may choose to put the niche in either a public graveyard tree or in the mausoleum in the deceased's home. Public niches are birdhouse shaped, with a hole, a door and the deceased's name engraved in the front. Their insides contain the funeral urn with the deceased's braid coiled around it. Private niches hang from a rope in between a tablet engraved with the deceased’s name and the braid. These niches have a door in the back to access the chamber that contains the funeral urn.