Have you ever fantasized about what your own funeral would be like? You know, you're hovering about "up there" looking down on your friends and family bawling their eyes out while you're lowered into the ground or conveyed slowly into the fiery depths of a furnace, all the time thinking "Yeah, bet you wish you hadn't been so mean now!". Well, the people of Las Nieves, Galicia have been doing that for years. Sort of.

Follow the light at the end of the tunnel (after the jump of course).

The Near Death Festival is part fiesta, part pilgrimage whereby those from across Spain who have come back from the brink of death recount their tale to the whole town. Participants ride in their very own coffin, carried by their loved ones, from the town centre up to the local church. Once mass has been read, each lucky attendee gets to bore everyone with how they "saw the light".

But in true Spanish style, the festivities soon turn to more mundane pursuits - that of eating paella, drinking copious amounts of alcohol and exploding huge, dangerous fireworks. I bet the festivities themselves generate quite a lot of business for the next year themselves!

The festival itself takes place on July 29th 2007, so plenty of time to book. Try flights to Spain with easyJet. Be warned though. The town is way out in the sticks and is apparently rather, how should I put it, backward. Exorcism, pagan rites of passage and animal sacrifice are not unheard of in these parts, despite the fervent Catholicism. Jeepers Scooby!

The article above was found on Google and was published originally on Lost Weekend