A praying mantis, a huddle of butterflies, Galician horses and an alpine sunset are the winners of this year’s European Environment Agency’s “Rediscover Nature” photo competition. Here: Nature on My Doorstep, finalist. I Want That Pomerade Grain by Biagio Alberto Scalia, taken in national park of Circeo, Latina, Italy. (Photo by Biagio Alberto Scalia/REDISCOVER Nature/EEA)

Indian groom Prakash Sing (R) and bride Durga Prasad (C) perform marriage rituals at the Lord Shiva temple during the Maha Shivratri festival, in Kolkata, eastern India, 01 March 2022. Maha Shivaratri is celebrated with great devotion and religious fervor by Hindus, in honor of Lord Shiva with ritual bathing of Shivalingams and prayers. Unmarried women observe fast from dawn to dusk and pray to Lord Shiva to give them a good spouse. According to one of the most popular legends, Shivaratri is the wedding day of Lord Shiva and Parvati. (Photo by Piyal Adhikary/EPA/EFE)

Takahiro Shito, 47, and his wife Sayomi Shito, 46, pray with their children Tomoka, 14, and Kenya 16, and their great uncle Akinori Takahashi, 76, as they pay respects to their daughter Chisato,12, buried in a nearby cemetery, victim of the Okowa Elementary School tragedy, who was killed during last year's tsunami on March 11, 2012 near Ishinomaki, Japan. Teachers at the school weren't trained for tsunami evacuation and didn't to lead the children up the snow covered mountain behind the school after the tsunami warning was sounded. Out of 108 students at the school, 74 died and four remain missing; 10 of the school's 13 teachers were also killed. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak /Getty Images)

Devotees of the small farming village of Bibiclat celebrate the Feast of Saint John the Baptist while covered in banana leaves and mud on June 24, 2025 in Aliaga, 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. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)

Hindu holy man, or sadhu, applies paint to his forehead at his ashram on the premises of Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu February 15, 2015. Hindu holy men from Nepal and India come to this temple to take part in the Maha Shivaratri festival. Celebrated by Hindu devotees all over the world, Shivaratri is dedicated to Lord Shiva, and holy men mark the occasion by praying, smoking marijuana or smearing their bodies with ashes. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

“The Mahamasthakabhisheka (or Mahamasthak Abhishek) is an important Jain festival held once every twelve years in the town of Shravanabelagola in Karnataka state, India. The festival is held in veneration of an immense 18 meter high statue of the Bhagwan (or Saint) Gomateshwara Bahubali. The anointing last took place in February 2006, and the next ceremony will occur in 2018”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A Jain Sadhu (2nd L) and devotees gather and pray at the feet of the monolithic statue of Jain sage Gomateswara during preparations for the Mahamastak Abhisheka ceremony February 7, 2006 in Shravanabelagola, India. The Mahamastak Abhisheka ceremony is held just once every twelve years where the statue will be bathed with milk, yogurt, saffron, gold coins and other religious items. The statue is said to be the world's largest monolith. The ceremony officially runs February 8-19. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Shi'ite fighters launch a rocket during clashes with Islamic State militants on the outskirts of al-Alam March 8, 2015. Thaier Al-Sudani: “It was me and a few other Iraqi journalists working for local outlets. We went to the frontlines in coordination with the Iraqi government forces and supporting militias. The press officer would come in the morning and take us to the frontline in a convoy. Whenever an area was won from Islamic State, the fighters would chant and pray and show victory signs. Most of the areas we were in didn't have residents, so after the battle they would resemble ghost towns; nothing but burnt cars and charred bodies of Islamic State fighters. Al-Alam was an exception as it had some residents who chanted for the government forces after their victory”. (Photo by Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters)

Pakistani truck drivers from different cities sit on the roof top of the buildings at Truck station offering Dua before breaking the fast during Holy month of Ramadan in Lahore on April 15, 2021. Ramadan is marked by daily fasting from dawn to sunset Islami's holy month of Ramadan-ul-Mubarak is celebrated by Muslims worldwide marked by fasting, abstaining from foods, sеx and smoking from dawn to dusk for soul cleansing and strengthening the spiritual bond between them and the Almighty. (Photo by Rana Sajid Hussain/Pacific Press/Rex Features/Shutterstock)