Boys and younger men from the Ilosvai Selymes Peter folk dance group pour buckets of cold water on a girl as they attend the traditional watering of local girls on Easter Monday in Komarovce, Velke Trakany, Slovakia on April 10, 2023. During Easter Holy Week, the ancient tradition of Easter sprinkling known as “watering of the girls” when Hungarian boys visit their female friends, recite poems, and pour water on them, and in exchange the girls offer the boys food and drink. (Photo by Robert Nemeti/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Masked dancers perform a ritualistic dance at Kathmandu Durbar Square during the procession of erecting a sacred pole locally called “Ya: Shi”, marking the formal start of Indra Jatra dedicated to rain god Indra in Kathmandu, Nepal, on September 15, 2024. (Photo by Subaas Shrestha/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Vivid Sydney is a unique annual event of light, music and ideas, featuring an outdoor 'gallery' of extraordinary lighting sculptures, a cutting-edge contemporary music program, some of the world's most important creative industry forums and, of course, the spectacular illumination of the Sydney Opera House sails. It positions Sydney as the creative hub of Australia and the Asia-Pacific region, and delivers both innovative live entertainment and creative inspiration on a grand scale.

People wearing Christmas hats bath in a pool of watermelon peel during a Christmas service at a hot spring in Luoyang, Henan province, China, December 24, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A girl dressed up as a emissary of the Three Wise Men poses for a photo as she waits for their arrival in a helicopter to take part in the traditional Epiphany parade in Ronda, Spain, January 5, 2018. (Photo by Jon Nazca/Reuters)

The two Pulis Quastie and Gin-Gin run in the snow in their garden in Lautertal, southern Germany, Thursday, January 5, 2017. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

Bloodthirsty by Thomas P. Peschak, Germany/South Africa — winner, Behaviour: birds. When rations run short on Wolf Island, in the remote northern Galápagos, the sharp-beaked ground finches become vampires. Their sitting targets are Nazca boobies and other large birds. The finches rely on a scant diet of seeds and insects, which regularly dries up, so they drink blood to survive. ‘I’ve seen more than half a dozen finches drinking from a single Nazca booby,’ says Tom. Rather than leave their nests the boobies tolerate the vampires, and the blood loss doesn’t seem to cause permanent harm. (Photo by Thomas P. Peschak/2018 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

These are the stunning pictures of the night sky brilliantly capturing the lights and colors of the Milky Way glistening over desert landscapes. Taken in various locations across Australia and the United States from the Grand Canyon to the Coral Sea, the pictures perfectly show the bright lights of the starry skies. Here: Bisit Badlands, New Mexico. (Photo by Wayne Pinkston/Caters News)