Vogue Italia is hosting a series of shows in Milan exploring how the magazine seeks to engage with hot social and political issues and provoke debate through images by top photographers. The Photo Vogue festival in Milan is hosting three exhibitions. The first, Fashion and Politics in Vogue Italia, looks at the magazine’s ambition to be a catalyst for change – in subtle and playful ways. Here: David LaChapelle – October 2004. (Photo by David LaChapelle/The Guardian)

A participant wearing a motorcycle helmet gets sprayed with firecrackers, during the “Beehive Firecrackers” festival at the Yanshui district in Tainan, Taiwan on March 1, 2018. According to Taiwan's Tourism Bureau, the “beehive” festival started in the late 1885 as a request to the gods to spare Yanshui from a cholera outbreak which was making its way through the villages. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

The carcass of a fattened pig, winner of the “holy pig” contest, is attached to a metal frame during a sacrificial ceremony in Sanxia district, in New Taipei City, Taiwan February 1, 2017. The winner of Taiwan's “holy pig” ceremony on Thursday defended the lunar new year tradition against critics who argue the fattened animals are raised under cruel conditions. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

A Shinto priest prays to the dedicated dolls during the Festival of Repayment of Kindness at Dairoku-tensakaki Shrine in Tokyo, Saturday, May 16, 2015. Traditionally, it is believed that the dolls can give good health and happiness to children by absorbing sickness and ill fate. The dolls are then sacrificed during the festival after they have protected their young owners. (Photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)

We are all drawn to fire, entranced by its beauty and ferociousness. Its brilliance draws us in like moths to a candle flame. Thus, many of the celebrations that humans have involve lighting fires. They can be big or small; there could be many little lights or one giant inferno; they may float on water, burn on land, or rise high into the skies. Loi Krathong is a festival that is held each year in Thailand and a number of other places. During this festival thousands of little fires are lighted, presenting a marvelous sight for all the onlookers. It is believed that this tradition is an adaptation of Brahmanical festival, which was adopted by Thai Buddhists to honor Buddha.

A believer dressed as a “diablo” (devil) jumps at the San Blas' (Saint Blaise) procession during the “Endiablada” festival in Almonacid del Marquesado, in central Spain February 3, 2015. In the “Endiablada”, an undated traditional festival in honour of the Candelaria Virgin and San Blas, believers are dressed in colourful costumes, wear a mitre with lead cowbells tied to their waists that ring as they wander around the village and in front of the saints' statues during their processions. (Photo by Susana Vera/Reuters)

Revellers use water guns as they participate in a water fight during Songkran Festival celebrations at Kowloon City district, known as Little Thailand as there is large number of restaurants and shops run by Thais, in Hong Kong April 12, 2015. The Songkran festival, also known as the water festival, marks the start of Thailand's traditional New Year and is believed to wash away bad luck. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

A reveller reacts during a water fight at Songkran Festival celebrations in Bangkok April 13, 2016. The three-day Songkran Festival starts on 13-15 April annually and is celebrated with splashing water and putting powder on each others faces as a symbolic sign of cleansing and washing away the sins from the old year. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)