(CNN) A Mexican mayor married a crocodile this weekend to bring abundance to the town he leads.

This tradition dates back hundreds of years in the town of San Pedro Huamelula, in southern Mexico.

The reptile bride, dressed in white and with a flower crown on its head, is paraded around town to music before a ceremony takes place.

The ceremony symbolizes the union of two indigenous groups, the Chontales and the Huaves (also known as the Mareños).

The two lived in conflict in pre-Hispanic times, when the Huaves arrived to the land where the Chontales lived on the Pacific Coast, news agency EFE reports . They both claimed to have the power to bring good luck to the harvest.

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