What holidays are popular in Madagascar and how are they celebrated?

I realize that I already asked this question in the Holiday section, but thought that I would post it here since I haven't been getting many answers. Serious answers, only please!

The people of Madagascar are among the poorest in the world -- ten years ago it was said to be the fourth poorest. Thousands of homeless people making their homes out of discarded cardboard boxes on the streets. People in the villages live in grass huts and only a few houses are built from brick or mud. Overall, the poverty is profound and the living conditions are no doubt, by anyone's standards, devastatingly low. I make this point just to indicate that it is hard for a poor country to make a big celebration even on important public holidays.

People save up, however, to be able to afford a spectacular grave (often grander than anything they occupied during their lives) and honouring their ancestors in the ceremony of the "turning of the dead" or "famadihana". This involves the periodical exhumation and redressing the burial shrouds of the dead before they are reburied. This ritual is accompanied by song and dance, which often lasts up to ten days. Other ceremonies related to this rite include bathing the skull in honey and tobacco. The Turning of the Dead is believed to serve two major purposes. Firstly, it is believed to serve as a periodic turning of the dead who are "tired of sleeping on one side" and secondly, it provides a means of transferring the remains from a temporary tomb to a permanent one. It is also believed that the burial shrouds bring good luck and fertility to women who lie in them.

When one thinks of Malagasy holidays and celebrations, therefore, it is more in terms of those occasions, which are part of their ancient heritage.

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These are the official holidays:
http://www.globalsources.com/TNTLIST/DIR... A lot of these are religious dates so likely church events.


This article describes how independence day is celebrated

http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/...