Owners hold their pets as a Catholic priest (L) blesses them outside the San Francisco church in Lima, October 4, 2015. Hundreds of pets get blessed during Saint Francis of Assisi festivities outside the San Francisco church in downtown Lima. (Photo by Mariana Bazo/Reuters)

Paul Kerr was able to capture this stunning vista of the aurora australis from Canberra, New Zealand on June 1, 2025. (Photo by Paul Kerr/Hold Still Photography)

The Invasion. A quiet street in Macau. Modernization around is quickly changing the city, as documented by Paul Tsui. (Photo by Paul Tsui/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest)

Covered in prayer shawls, Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men participate in a blessing during the holiday of Sukkot, in front of the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray in Jerusalem's Old City, Wednesday, September 30, 2015. The Cohanim, believed to be descendants of priests who served God in the Jewish Temple before it was destroyed, perform a blessing ceremony of the Jewish people three times a year during the festivals of Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot. (Photo by Oded Balilty/AP Photo)

A priest sprinkles holy water at a cat at a drive-through pet blessing, ahead of World Animal Day, at a mall in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines on October 2, 2022. (Photo by Lisa Marie David/Reuters)

Fr. Denis Crosby blesses a live lamb during a Pattern Day mass to St. Brigid at the holy well of St. Brigid in Liscannor, Ireland February 1, 2017. (Photo by Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters)

An iguana rests on a man's head during a pet blessing ceremony a day after World Animal Day, at a mall in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines on October 5, 2025. (Photo by Noel Celis/Reuters)

A pet owner holds his guinea pig named Riec as Father Francisco bestows a blessing on the pet rodent during a feast day Mass in honor of Saint Anthony, the patron saint of animals, at the Saint Fernando church, in Mexico City, Saturday, January 17, 2015. Many people in Mexico bring their pets to churches to be blessed by the priest on this day. (Photo by Marco Ugarte/AP Photo)