As 2022 comes to a close, we look at the images regarding religion and religious festivals around the world.
Iranian Shi’ite Muslim women take part in a morning ritual ahead of Ashura, the holiest day on the Shi’ite Muslim calendar in Tehran, Iran, August 7. (Image: Majid Asgaripour/WANA)
Military Chaplain Nikolay Medynsky blesses a Ukrainian soldier before he goes into battle, as Russia’s attack on the Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 13. (Image: REUTERS/Thomas Peter)
Pope Francis attends the Lac Ste. Anne Pilgrimage, an annual pilgrimage that welcomes tens of thousands of Indigenous participants from throughout Canada and the United States each year, at Lac Ste. Anne, Alberta, Canada, July 26. (Image: Vatican Media/via REUTERS)
A worshipper guides her child after lighting a candle during Easter vigil prayers at the St. Joanes, Legio Maria of African Church Mission within Fort Jesus in Kibera district of Nairobi, Kenya, April 17. (Image: REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya)
Children play at the the Manila North Cemetery during All Saints’ Day, in Manila, Philippines, November 1. (Image: REUTERS/Lisa Marie David)
Pope Francis greets people after holding the weekly general audience at the Vatican, August 10. (Image: REUTERS/Yara Nardi)
A medium woman with her mouth pierced is portrayed during the Jui Tui Shrine procession amidst celebrations of the annual vegetarian festival, observed by Taoist devotees from the Thai-Chinese community in the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar, in Phuket Town, Thailand. October 2. (Image: REUTERS/Jorge Silva)
A Muslim woman with a child leaves after offering prayers during Jumat-ul-Vida or the last Friday of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, at Jama Masjid in the old quarters of Delhi, India, April 29. (Image: REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis)
Cattle traders and customers crowd the Al-Manashi livestock market, ahead of the Muslim festival of sacrifice Eid al-Adha, in Embama district on the outskirts of Giza, Egypt, July 7. (Image: REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh)
A Shi’ite Muslim woman touches the foot of a symbolic sacred horse for good luck, during a Muharram procession marking Ashura in Kolkata, India, August 9. (Image: REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri)
Congregants take part in an annual “Freedom Sunday” service at the First Baptist evangelical Southern Baptist megachurch in Dallas, Texas, June 26. (Image: REUTERS/Shelby Tauber)
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men gather to watch the funeral procession of prominent rabbi Chaim Kanievsky who died at 94, in Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, Israel March 20. (Image: REUTERS/Nir Elias)
Abram Kroeker, 13, helps his brother (not pictured) transport a cow and feed for cattle in the Mennonite community of Chavi, Hecelchakan, Campeche state, Mexico, May 11. In Campeche, where Mennonites arrived in the 1980s, around 8,000 sq km of forest, nearly a fifth of the state’s tree cover, has been lost in the last 20 years, with 2020 the worst on record, according to Global Forest Watch. (Image: REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez)
Bulgarian Muslim bride Kimile Avdinova has makeup applied to her face during her wedding ceremony in the village of Ribnovo, in the Rhodope Mountains, Bulgaria, January 2. The remote mountain village of Ribnovo in southwest Bulgaria has kept its traditional winter marriage ceremony alive despite decades of Communist persecution, followed by poverty that forced many men to seek work abroad. The wedding ritual was resurrected with vigour among the Pomaks – Slavs who converted to Islam under Ottoman rule. The highlight of the ceremony is the painting of the bride’s face, where in a private rite open only to female in-laws, her face is covered in thick, chalky white paint and decorated with colorful sequins. (Image: REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov)
Muslims offer prayers at Jama Masjid on the occasion of Eid al-Adha festival, in the old quarters of Delhi, India, July 10. (Image: REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis)
Romanian Orthodox Monk, Father Caliopie, takes lists of names of the dead and writes allocated prayer times for them, before service begins in the Church at Putna Monastery, which is housing people fleeing Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion, in Putna, Romania, March 8. (Image: REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne)
A Shi’ite Muslim boy has his head gashed during a Muharram procession ahead of Ashura in Ahmedabad, India, August 6. (Image: REUTERS/Amit Dave)
Vendors set balloons for sale as Palestinians celebrate Eid al-Fitr at Damascus Gate to Jerusalem’s Old City, May 2. (Image: REUTERS/Ammar Awad)
Devotees pray before forming a human pyramid to break a clay pot containing curd during the Hindu festival of Janmashtami, marking the birth anniversary of Hindu Lord Krishna, in Mumbai, India, August 19. (Image: REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas)
A Muslim pilgrim visits Mount Al-Noor, where Muslims believe Prophet Mohammad received the first words of the Koran through Gabriel in the Hira cave, in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, July 4. (Image: REUTERS/Mohammed Salem)
Hindu devotees sit together on the floor of a temple with oil lamps, praying to Lokenath Brahmachari, a Hindu saint, as they observe Rakher Upabash, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, November 5. (Image: REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain)
Children participate in a greasy pole game during the traditional burning of Judas, as part of the Holy Week celebrations in Caracas, Venezuela, April 17. (Image: REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria)
Hindu devotees take part in the religious festival of Holi inside a temple in Nandgaon village, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India, March 12. (Image: REUTERS/Adnan Abidi)
People watch a giant paper statue of the Chinese deity “Da Shi Ye” or “Guardian God of Ghosts” burn during the Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival, in Cheras, Selangor, Malaysia, August 13. (Image: REUTERS/Hasnoor Hussain)
Shi’ite Muslim pilgrims beat their chests as they commemorate the Arbaeen at the shrine Imam al-Hussein,in Kerbala, Iraq, September 16. (Image: REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani)
A priest sprinkles holy water at dogs at a drive-through pet blessing, ahead of World Animal Day, at a mall in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines, October 2. (Image: REUTERS/Lisa Marie David)
Worshippers gather around candles stuck to jars with honey during a religious mass to mark the day of Saint Haralampi, the Orthodox patron saint of beekeepers, in the church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, February 10. (Image: REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov)
Buddhist monks turn on the LED lights to form an image of the Lord Buddha, as people observe Vesak Day, an annual celebration of Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death, at Dhammakaya Temple, Pathum Thani, near Bangkok, Thailand, May 15. (Image: REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun)
Actors get ready before a play based on the life of Hindu Lord Ram during Navratri festival celebrations, in the old quarters of Delhi, India, October 4. (Image: REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis)
