A student poses with her painted face, ahead of New Year celebrations at a college in Chennai on December 28, 2024. (Photo by R. Satish Babu/AFP Photo)

Devotees offer prayers during New Year's Day at a Hindu temple in Colombo on January 1, 2025. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)

A woman walks between Christmas trees at a Christmas market opened prior to incoming Christmas and New Year festivities in St. Petersburg, Russia, Friday, December 15, 2023. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

People spray water in the street ahead of “Songkran”, the annual Thai New Year water-throwing festival, in Kowloon City, Hong Kong, China, 09 April 2017. The pouring of water is a key element in the festival as it represents purification and the washing away of one's sins and bad luck for the year. The event also includes a “Miss Songkran” pageant where contestants are clothed in traditional Thai dress, and a winner is crowned. This year's “Songkran” will begin in Thailand on 13 April 2017. (Photo by Alex Hofford/EPA)

A member of the Edo Firemanship Preservation Association displays his balancing skills atop bamboo ladders during a New Year demonstration by the fire brigade in Tokyo, Japan, January 6, 2017. (Photo by Toru Hanai/Reuters)

People perform Chinese Lion dance in Chinatown during the Chinese Lunar New Year in Lima, Peru on February 5, 2019. (Photo by Guadalupe Pardo/Reuters)

A woman throws water at passing motorists during celebrations for the Thingyan festival, also known as the Buddhist New Year, in Naypyidaw, Myanmar on April 16, 2019. (Photo by Thet Aung/AFP Photo)

Young girls dress up in traditional costumes and pose for a selfie at the opening ceremony of the Leishan Miao new year festival in the city of Kaili, Guizhou province, China on November 23, 2015. (Photo by Imaginechina/Rex Shutterstock)