It's the holidays in Zimbabwe. Time to celebrate by unveiling a family tombstone

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Chipo Benhure started saving early for a holiday season to remember in Zimbabwe, but it wasn’t for a party or vacation. The highlight is a graveyard ceremony to unveil her late mother’s tombstone.

The generations-old rite has come to be associated with long holidays such as Christmas in the southern African nation, where the weakened economy leaves many people struggling to do their duty of honoring the dead.

“I didn’t want to be found wanting come Christmastime, so I was putting aside a few dollars each month,” Benhure said, standing at a crowded and dusty ground on the outskirts of the capital, Harare. Workers used grinders and stone polishers to make tombstones. Others chiseled detailed portraits, referring to photos shared by loved ones.

Soon, a $450 black granite tombstone was added to the flower bouquets and sacks of groceries as Benhure and about a dozen relatives squashed together in a minibus traveling to their rural home for the ceremony. The cost represented more than twice the average monthly income for an urban household in Zimbabwe, which is about $200.

Zimbabweans traditionally use long holidays such as the Christmas season to hold often joyous graveyard rites that include song, dance, Christian prayers or invitations for ancestral spirits to protect and guide the living.

Many believe such ceremonies can bring blessings — but neglect them too long and a curse could result. Until the ceremonies, graves are marked by simple metal signs or nothing at all.

In Zimbabwe's urban areas this holiday season, household yards and other open spaces have been turned into makeshift tombstone manufacturing zones by people trying to eke out a living.

Prices range from $150 to $2,500, and some people pay in installments. Delivery vans and trucks are on standby for hire.

One tombstone provider, Tafadzwa Machokoto, attended to a stream of customers and called this his busiest time of year. The computer science graduate now employs almost 10 people for making or marketing tombstones.

“Our customers take tombstone unveiling very seriously. They would rather spend on the ceremony than on a Christmas bash. They need the blessings,” he said.

Machokoto recalled a businessman who once ordered 11 tombstones because his transport venture was struggling. The businessman said he constantly had dreams of his late father instructing him to spruce up the family cemetery.

“It rained just after the ceremony and everyone took it as a sign that the ancestors were now happy," Machokoto said. “He even bought me a smartphone months later as a present, saying his business was now thriving.”

On a recent weekend at a cemetery on the outskirts of Harare, Zororo Memorial Park, several graves were covered with white cloth, ready for unveiling ceremonies.

The family of the late Kindness Ziwange said it had spent over $2,000 on the ceremony, including $900 for a tombstone. Afterward, close to 50 relatives, friends and neighbors feasted on fried potatoes, fried rice, grilled chicken, stewed beef and vegetable salad.

“We will lay low on Christmas Day. We already had our big day today as a family. Some traveled through the night for this event,” said a relative, Isabel Murindagomo.

While some in Zimbabwe regard the ceremony as an essentially Indigenous ritual associated with the ancestral cult and reactivation of the spirits, others view it as a Christian event to remember deceased relatives, said Ezra Chitando, a professor in the University of Zimbabwe’s religious studies department.

“The majority of people are hovering between the two positions. Some try to moderate by contributing financially to the process but do not attend the ceremony,” Chitando said, highlighting the religious complexity of local beliefs associated with the dead.

Although the majority of Zimbabweans profess to be Christian, experts say many combine the faith with traditional practices.

Benhure, with the tombstone for her late mother now in place, sees little difference in the end.

“Honoring the dead brings blessings to the living irrespective of one’s religion,” she said.

A worker cleans a tombstone at a cemetary in Harare, Zimbabwe, Wednesday, Dec. 4 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Ufumeli)

People walk past tombstones at a cemetory in Harare, Zimbabwe, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Ufumeli)

A worker cleans a tombstone at a cemetary in Harare, Zimbabwe, Wednesday, Dec. 4 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Ufumeli)

Friends and relatives of the Ziwangwe family, during the unveiling of the tombstone of late Kindness Ziwangwe at a cemetary in Harare, Zimbabwe, Saturday, Dec 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Ufumeli)

Friends and relatives of the Ziwangwe family, during the unveiling of the tombstone of late Kindness Ziwangwe at a cemetary in Harare, Zimbabwe, Saturday, Dec 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Ufumeli)

Friends and relatives of the Ziwangwe family, during the unveiling of the tombstone of late Kindness Ziwangwe at a cemetary in Harare, Zimbabwe, Saturday, Dec 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Ufumeli)

ST. LOUIS (AP) — World champions Ilia Malinin and the ice dance duo of Madison Chock and Evan Bates will anchor one of the strongest U.S. Figure Skating teams in history when they head to Italy for the Milan Cortina Olympics in less than a month.

Malinin, fresh off his fourth straight national title, will be the prohibitive favorite to follow in the footsteps of Nathan Chen by delivering another men's gold medal for the American squad when he steps on the ice at the Milano Ice Skating Arena.

Chock and Bates, who won their record-setting seventh U.S. title Saturday night, also will be among the Olympic favorites, as will world champion Alysa Liu and women's teammate Amber Glenn, fresh off her third consecutive national title.

U.S. Figure Skating announced its full squad of 16 athletes for the Winter Games during a made-for-TV celebration Sunday.

"I'm just so excited for the Olympic spirit, the Olympic environment," Malinin said. “Hopefully go for that Olympic gold.”

Malinin will be joined on the men's side by Andrew Torgashev, the all-or-nothing 24-year-old from Coral Springs, Florida, and Maxim Naumov, the 24-year-old from Simsbury, Connecticut, who fulfilled the hopes of his late parents by making the Olympic team.

Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova were returning from a talent camp in Kansas when their American Airlines flight collided with a military helicopter and crashed into the icy Potomac River in January 2025. One of the last conversations they had with their son was about what it would take for him to follow in their footsteps by becoming an Olympian.

“We absolutely did it,” Naumov said. “Every day, year after year, we talked about the Olympics. It means so much in our family. It's what I've been thinking about since I was 5 years old, before I even know what to think. I can't put this into words.”

Chock and Bates helped the Americans win team gold at the Beijing Games four years ago, but they finished fourth — one spot out of the medals — in the ice dance competition. They have hardly finished anywhere but first in the years since, winning three consecutive world championships and the gold medal at three straight Grand Prix Finals.

U.S. silver medalists Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik also made the dance team, as did the Canadian-born Christina Carreira, who became eligible for the Olympics in November when her American citizenship came through, and Anthony Ponomarenko.

Liu was picked for her second Olympic team after briefly retiring following the Beijing Games. She had been burned out by years of practice and competing, but stepping away seemed to rejuvenate the 20-year-old from Clovis, California, and she returned to win the first world title by an American since Kimmie Meissner stood atop the podium two decades ago.

Now, the avant-garde Liu will be trying to help the U.S. win its first women's medal since Sasha Cohen in Turin in 2006, and perhaps the first gold medal since Sarah Hughes triumphed four years earlier at the Salt Lake City Games.

Her biggest competition, besides a powerful Japanese contingent, could come from her own teammates: Glenn, a first-time Olympian, has been nearly unbeatable the past two years, while 18-year-old Isabeau Levito is a former world silver medalist.

"This was my goal and my dream and it just feels so special that it came true,” said Levito, whose mother is originally from Milan.

The two pairs spots went to Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea, the U.S. silver medalists, and the team of Emily Chan and Spencer Howe.

The top American pairs team, two-time reigning U.S. champions Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, were hoping that the Finnish-born Efimova would get her citizenship approved in time to compete in Italy. But despite efforts by the Skating Club of Boston, where they train, and the help of their U.S. senators, she did not receive her passport by the selection deadline.

“The importance and magnitude of selecting an Olympic team is one of the most important milestones in an athlete's life,” U.S. Figure Skating CEO Matt Farrell said, "and it has such an impact, and while there are sometimes rules, there is also a human element to this that we really have to take into account as we make decisions and what's best going forward from a selection process.

“Sometimes these aren't easy," Farrell said, “and this is not the fun part.”

The fun is just beginning, though, for the 16 athletes picked for the powerful American team.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Amber Glenn competes during the women's free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Alysa Liu skates during the "Making Team USA" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Maxim Naumov skates during the "Making Team USA" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Madison Chock and Evan Bates skate during the "Making the Team" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Gold medalist Ilia Malinin arrives for the metal ceremony after the men's free skate competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)