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Devotees in a small farming village in Bibiclat celebrate the feast of Saint John the Baptist while covered in banana leaves and mud on June 24, 2023 in Aliaga, north of Manila, Philippines. Known as the “Taong Putik” (mud people), the ritual happens yearly in this small farming village as their own version of expressing their faith and celebrating the feast of Saint John the Baptist whom the survivors of the Japanese occupation in 1944 in their area prayed to for rain to save their fellow villagers. A marker near the church entrance of the village tells a story of a heavy torrential rain that happened that day that forced the Japanese military to call off the execution of 14 villagers. The Philippines is the only predominantly Catholic country in Southeast Asia after more than 300 years of Spanish rule. (Photo by Jes Aznar/Getty Images)
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