Photos: Spring holy days and festivals observed worldwide
See 26 images captured by AP photographers in March, as springtime ushered in a host of religious holidays and festivals observed by the faithful around the world.
A Hindu man takes a holy bath before praying during Shivratri festival at Pashupatinath temple premises in Kathmandu, Nepal, Thursday, March 11, 2021. Shivratri, or the night of Shiva, is dedicated to the worship of Lord Shiva, the Hindu god of death and destruction. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
An Orthodox Christian refugee who fled the conflict in the Ethiopia's Tigray region reads prayers with his son in front of a church at the Hamdeyat Transition Center near the Sudan-Ethiopia border, eastern Sudan, Tuesday March 16, 2021. Political tensions between Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government and the Tigray leaders who once dominated the country's government exploded in November into war. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men and children burn leavened items in final preparation for the Passover holiday in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish town of Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, March 26, 2021. Jews are forbidden to eat leavened foodstuffs during the Passover holiday that celebrates the biblical story of the Israelites' escape from slavery and exodus from Egypt. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Indians smeared in color participate in Holi festival celebrations in Gauhati, India, Monday, March 29, 2021. Hindus threw colored powder and sprayed water in massive Holi celebrations Monday despite many Indian states restricting gatherings to try to contain a coronavirus resurgence rippling across the country. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)
Kashmiri Muslim women pray as the head priest displays a relic at the Hazratbal shrine on the occasion of Mehraj-u-Alam, believed to mark the ascension of Prophet Muhammad to heaven, in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, March 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)
Tourists sit on a boat and watch Hindu priests perform evening rituals on the banks of the River Ganges in Varanasi, India, Sunday, March 14, 2021. Varanasi is among the world's oldest cities, and millions of Hindu pilgrims gather annually here for ritual bathing and prayers in the Ganges River, considered holiest by Hindus. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
People watch a castle-shape wooden construction burning as part of celebrations at the Maslenitsa (Shrovetide) festival at the Nikola-Lenivets art park in Nikola-Lenivets village, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) southwest of Moscow, Russia, Saturday, March 13, 2021. Maslenitsa is an Orthodox Christian holiday celebrated in the last week before the Orthodox Lent. (AP Photo/Dmitry Serebryakov)
An Iraqi security officer follows the prayer session led by Pope Francis for the victims of war at Hosh al-Bieaa Church Square, in Mosul, Iraq, once the de-facto capital of IS, Sunday, March 7, 2021. The long 2014-2017 war to drive IS out left ransacked homes and charred or pulverized buildings around the north of Iraq, all sites Francis visited on Sunday. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Francis, surrounded by shells of destroyed churches, leads a prayer for the victims of war at Hosh al-Bieaa Church Square, in Mosul, Iraq, once the de-facto capital of IS, Sunday, March 7, 2021. The long 2014-2017 war to drive IS out left ransacked homes and charred or pulverized buildings around the north of Iraq, all sites Francis visited. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Members of the God's Love Evangelical Church and Rehab Center pray for a woman in an area known as "cracolandia" or crackland, amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, March 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Marius Annandale kneels while praying during a Second Amendment rally at the Utah State Capitol Saturday, March 27, 2021, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Actors put on their costumes prior a Palm Sunday passion play amid the coronavirus pandemic, outside Iztapalapa Cathedral, in Iztapalapa, a borough of Mexico City, Sunday, March 28, 2021. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
Melvin Goldstein, 90, smiles as his daughter Barbara Goldstein places her hand on his head during their first in-person, indoor family visit inside the Hebrew Home at Riverdale, Sunday, March 28, 2021, in the Bronx borough of New York. The younger Goldstein's spouse Judy Disco, left, stands at left. Due to earlier COVID-19 protocols, only outdoor visits through the windows had been allowed. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Women embrace outside the courtroom after a judge acquitted former Catholic Priest Carlos Eduardo Jose, citing the statute of limitations had run out on allegations of years of sexual abuse of Mailin Gobbo when she was an adolescent, in San Martin, Argentina, Tuesday, March 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
A devotee takes part in a Holy Week Palm Sunday procession at Saint Mary cathedral, in Pamplona, northern Spain, Sunday, March 28, 2021. Many devotees attended the procession a year after events were cancelled due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)
An elderly Chechen man walks to pray at a snow-covered cemetery, a memorial to the Stalin-era deportation's victims, in Grozny, Russia, Friday, March 12, 2021. Chechens and Ingush were victims of the 1944 deportations to the barren steppes of then-Soviet Central Asia. (AP Photo/Musa Sadulayev)
Myanmar nationals living in Taiwan pray for victims and express their disdain against the military regime in Myanmar during a demonstration at Liberty Square in Taipei, Taiwan, Sunday, March 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
The full moon rises over the sky in Istanbul, Sunday, March 28, 2021, with a view of the Camlica Mosque, the largest mosque in Asia Minor as a ship crosses the Bosphorus Strait separating European and Asian sides of the metropolis. The March full moon is called the "Worm Moon". (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Christians take part in Palm Sunday Mass at the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Family, in Gaza City, Sunday, March 28 2021. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
A group of protestors shout slogans and wave shoes after Friday prayers at Baitul Mokarram mosque in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday, March 26, 2021. Witnesses said violent clashes broke out after one faction of protesters began waving their shoes as a sign of disrespect to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and another group tried to stop them. Local media said the protesters who tried to stop the shoe-waving are aligned with the ruling Awami League party. The party criticized the other protest faction for attempting to create chaos in the country during Modi's visit. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)
An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man rests after receiving his second dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at a coronavirus vaccination center set up at a synagogue in Bnei Brak, Israel, Sunday, March. 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Nuns pose for a selfie as they mark Palm Sunday on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, Sunday, March 28, 2021. A year after coronavirus restrictions halted mass gatherings, Christians are celebrating Holy Week together. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
A Catholic priest walks beside empty pews with lighted candles as he prepares for an online mass to prevent the spread of the coronavirus at the Saint Peter Parish Church in Quezon city, Philippines on Palm Sunday, March 28, 2021. The government banned religious activities during the Holy Week as it enters into stricter lockdown measures starting next week while the country struggles to control an alarming surge in COVID-19 cases. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Palm fronds made into crosses decorated with Jesus Christ lay for sale outside the San Francisco Basilica in La Paz, Bolivia, Sunday, March 28, 2021. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
A woman closes her eyes as she prays during a vigil and rally against Asian hate crimes, Friday, March 26, 2021, at Chicago's Horner Park. The event is organized by local Chicago organizations led by Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. (AP Photo/Shafkat Anowar)
A Kashmiri Shiite Muslim girl lights candles at the grave of her relative to mark Shab-e- Barat, on the outskirts of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Monday, March 29, 2021. Muslims visit ancestral graveyards for the salvation of the souls of the departed and also believe that all sins will be forgiven by praying to Allah throughout the Shab-e Barat night. (AP Photo/ Dar Yasin)
Here's a roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week.
A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week.
Disaffected young evangelicals and those who left the church describe an out-of-touch institution not in line with their political beliefs, a scholar found
Interest in Wicca and witchcraft appears to be increasing, but what exactly is Wicca in the first place?
As the Jewish community prepares to celebrate the High Holy Days, a scholar of the Bible explains their history and why they might offer consolation in times of uncertainty.
Women have long complained they have second-class status in the Church, despite doing the lion's share of its work teaching in schools, running hospitals and passing the faith onto future generations.
The Moon Festival, rooted in China’s long history and rich cultural traditions, is celebrated on Sept. 21 this year. In China, though, the festival is a three-day public holiday.
The churches’ struggles to respond to the plague and constant warfare in the 14th and 15th centuries helped shape the kinds of Christianity in the world today.