Chinese folk artists perform the lion dance at a temple fair to celebrate the Lunar New Year of Dragon on January 22, 2012 in Beijing, China. Falling on January 23 this year, the Chinese Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, which is based on the Lunisolar Chinese calendar, is celebrated from the first day of the first month of the lunar year and ends with Lantern Festival on the Fifteenth day. (Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images)

The long and intriguing story of the origine of the indigenous Maori people can be traced back to the 13th century, the mythical homeland Hawaiki, Eastern Polynesia. Due to centuries of isolation, the Maori established a distinct society with characteristic art, a separate language and unique mythology. Defining aspects of Maori traditional culture include art, dance, legends, tattoos and community. While the arrival of European colonists in the 18th centure had a profound impact on the Maori way of life, many aspects of traditional society have survived into the 21th century.

Giffords Circus’s show is touring the UK. Established in 2000, Giffords Circus is a small circus company that delivers circus / theatre fusion to the villages and market towns of the south west. It combines dance, comedy, horses and live music in a two-hour show, located on village greens in a small white tent surrounded by handmade burgundy and gold showman’s wagons. Photographer Tom Pilston goes behind the scenes to meet the performers. Here: The incredible, gravity-defying Konjowoch Troupe. (Photo by Tom Pilston/The Guardian)

People sit on the top of a truck heavily piled with corn-stalks plies as they head for Mogadishu from Afgooye on October 19, 2016. At least four police officers were killed on October 18 when a suicide bomb attacker rammed an explosives-packed car into a police station before fighters from the Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab group subsequently stormed the area killing at least 10 people, including soldiers and civilians. (Photo by Mohamed Abdiwahab/AFP Photo)

Girl scouts pose for a group photo at the third station of the Way of the Cross reenactment marking Good Friday, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, March 30, 2018. Thousands of Haitians are commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ by reenacting the Way of the Cross, visiting the 14 stations, each marking an event that befell Jesus Christ on his final journey. (Photo by Dieu Nalio Chery/AP Photo)

A woman with a large cross decorated with a Jesus figure during the use of water cannons by the police after heterogeneous groups around Corona deniers, conspiracy theorists and right-wing extremists called for blocking access to German Government Buildings in Berlin, Germany on November 18, 2020. Both the Bundestag and the Bundesrat vote on planned new regulations of the infection protection law. (Photo by Jan Scheunert/ZUMA Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Carnival participants dressed in costume and wearing body paint pose for a group picture during the annual Zambo carnival held in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli on March 14, 2021, marking the last period of excess on the eve of the Christian Greek Orthodox lent. The inspiration of the annual Zambo celebration is unclear, despite it being a tradition that stretches back over a century to when an emigrant to Brazil returned to his native Tripoli bringing the carnival with him. (Photo by Ibrahim Chalhoub/AFP Photo)

A pair of Easter bunnies socialise in the sunshine on April 4, 2021 in Brighton, United Kingdom. Earlier this week, the UK government eased rules on socialising, permitting groups of six people (or more if limited to two households) to meet outdoors. The latest lockdown measures were imposed at the end of last year to curb a surge in Covid-19 cases. (Photo by David McHugh/Brighton Pictures)