Pope Benedict XVI arrives at the Santa Sabina Basilica for the Ash Wednesday service on March 9, 2011 in Rome, Italy. Ash Wednesday opens the liturgical 40-day period of Lent, a period of prayer, fasting, penitence and alms giving leading up to Easter.

Members of the Black Hebrews community celebrate the Shavuot harvest festival on June, 19, 2011 in Dimona, Israel. The community, who call themselves the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, moved to Israel in 1969 from the United States and have since maintained a vibrant culture which includes a communal lifestyle and a vegan diet. They are not recognized as Jews by Israel despite their belief in the Torah, but were granted permanent resident status in 2003. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

Revellers celebrate "Ash Monday" by participating in a colourful "flour war", a traditional festivity marking the end of the carnival season and the start of the 40-day Lent period until the Orthodox Easter,in the port town of Galaxidi, some 215 km (134 miles) north west of Athens, March 18, 2013. The revellers "fight" by throwing coloured flour, charcoal dust and powder painting until they essentially run out of supplies. (Photo by Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)

“News of a ceasefire is greeted by wild celebrations on the streets of Gaza, whilst Israeli residents of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are more cautious in their support for the peace deal”. – Reuters

Photo: Palestinian gunmen hold a poster of late Ahmed Jabari, head of the Hamas military wing in Gaza City, while they celebrate the cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza City, Wednesday, November 21, 2012. Israel and the Hamas militant group agreed to a cease-fire Wednesday to end eight days of the fiercest fighting in nearly four years, promising to halt attacks on each other and ease an Israeli blockade constricting the Gaza Strip. (Photo by Adel Hana/AP)

A person drags a suitcase as a boy clings to it on a square in front of a railway station ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year in Qingdao, Shandong province, January 28, 2014. About 3.62 billion trips will be made during the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, which started from January 16, reported Xinhua News Agency citing a government official. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

Army soldiers prepare a military elephant for the parade during a rehearsal for Sri Lanka's 68th Independence day celebrations in Colombo, February 2, 2016. (Photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)

Women comfort each other as they mourn over the death of a family member who was killed in a bomb blast, at a local hospital in Lahore, Pakistan, Sunday, March, 27, 2016. A bomb blast in a park in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore has killed tens of people and wounded scores, a health official said. (Photo by K.M. Chuadary/AP Photo)

Fireworks explode around the London Eye wheel, the Big Ben clock tower and the Houses of Parliament to mark the beginning of the New Year in London, Britain, January 1, 2016. (Photo by Toby Melville/Reuters)