Independent miners transport llamas to sacrifice them for good fortune during the year as part of Andean carnival celebrations, outside the Mina Itos on the outskirts of Oruro, Bolivia February 24, 2017. (Photo by David Mercado/Reuters)

While many of us would pay good money for a spa mud bath, these fortunate hippos in South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, have nature to thank as they take a plunge in a lagoon in the second decade of February 2024. (Photo by Dimitar Nedelchev/Solent News)

Animal rights activists covered with fake blood sit on the floor during a protest against the use of animals in research to mark World Day for Animals in Laboratories in central Madrid April 24, 2014. The sign reads, “How many rabbits do your shampoo kill?”. (Photo by Andrea Comas/Reuters)

The Belgian photographer Anton Kusters spent two years photographing the Yakuza, Japan’s most notorious gang. He returned with some amazing images that he made into a book called “Odo Yakuza Tokyo”. (Odo means “the way of the cherry blossom” and is the credo of the Yakuza family he followed. Photo: An erotic danser picks up fake 2-dollar bills during a private dance with a Yakuza customer in a strip tease bar in Kabukicho, a bar which is controlled by the ODO family – 2010. (Photo and caption by Anton Kusters)

A man and a woman jump over a bonfire during Ivan Kupala Day celebrations held by the Belarusian State Museum of Folk Architecture and Rural Lifestyle in the village of Ozertso near Minsk, Belarus on July 4, 2020. Ivan Kupala Day, also known as Ivana-Kupala or Kupala Night, is a traditional pagan holiday celebrated in eastern Slavic cultures. Various rituals are traditionally performed on Kupala Night, including making flower wreaths, fortune-telling, jumping over bonfires, and burning a wheel-like effigy symbolizing the sun. (Photo by Natalia Fedosenko/TASS)

To mark Halloween, 150 teens descended upon a swimming pool in Essex to help mobile network giffgaff recreate the famous Tomatina tomato fight... only this time, with blood and guts. Different takes #giffgaffguts. On October 18, 2013 in Dagenham, England. (Photo by Dave J. Hogan/Stringer for giffgaff)

A woman sells statues of the Ekeko, god of fortune, at the traditional “Alasitas” fair in La Paz January 24, 2015. During the fair, Bolivians buy miniature versions of goods like cars, money and houses they would like to own in real life during the year. (Photo by David Mercado/Reuters)

People smear black ash with hands onto each other to wish for good luck and fortune during a traditional festival of the Yi ethnic minority in Qiubei County, Yunnan province, China July 18, 2017. (Photo by Ren Dong/Reuters/CNS)