Do you believe in the saying “till death do us part”?
In China, there is a tradition of having the deceased marry each other by putting their corpses side by side. This is done apparently to allow a deceased family member to be accompanied by someone rather than remain alone in the grave.
Ghost marriages date back to the 17th century. During his rule, Mao Zedong attempted to eradicate the practice, but there are still areas in China that this ritual is upheld.
Recently, four men surnamed Pang, Bai, He, and Zhang were sentenced to prison for two years for digging up 10 female corpses and selling them on the black market for a total of US$38,320.
This is not the first time that ghost marriages have fallen on the wrong side of the law. There have even been cases in which corpses were dug up and sold twice, the second time for a slightly lower price.
According to the Global Times, there is no need to illegally dig up corpses because families may use improvised partners for their deceased loved ones. They can use mannequins or steel wires that are shaped like humans.
(source)