Fromskull lichenusnea to“mummy brown ” rouge , world is said to have found all sorts of unbelievable uses for strange materials , but our recent favorites are the Moss Men of Béjar . Their fabled and unequalled habit of moss would put them alongside louse larvae and weevils when it come to camouflage approaches , and they ’re celebrated every June in the Procession of the Hombres de Musgo .
The Moss Men were born out of warfare . When invaders arrived in the Iberian Peninsula from Africa , it triggered a chain of upshot that – watch one C of back and away between the Islamic and Christian kingdom – lead to a fatal feast twenty-four hour period of Saint Marina of Bitinia .
According to a2001 paperby Javier Martínez - Abaigar and Encarnación Núñez - Olivera from Universidad de La Rioja , the fable of the Moss Men belike originated from 1209 when Christians were hiding in the mountains of El Castañar around 3 kilometre ( 19 miles ) from Béjar , Spain . It was June 18 , check off the jubilation of Saint Marina , a virgin who ’d lived undercover as a male monk in an eighth - C monastery .
The legend is celebrated in a parade that sees people lop head - to - toe in moss march the streets of Béjar , commemorating the battle that ’s said to have freed it from Muslim line around eight centuries ago .
“ The custom of the Moss Men has survived until the present day and is immortalise every yr in the procession of the Corpus Christi celebration , which is celebrated nowadays on the 9th Sunday after Easter , ” wrote Martínez - Abaigar and Núñez - Olivera .
“ An extra custom involved the pilgrimage of the people from Béjar to the hermitage commit to Saint Marina , which was built in the 12thcentury at the web site where the Mass was said before the conflict . ”
Bryophytesare a radical of plants that let in the moss , alongside liverwort and hornwort , explain the British Bryological Society . Like plants , they get their food through photosynthesis , but a subvert root scheme and high permissiveness for wet and dry arguably make them a better textile to play with when creating botanical armor .
In fact , moss is so brave it was once revived after spending1,500 days locked in permafrost . Meanwhile most suits today ca n’t even hack a effortless slutdrop . Smh .
