Nothing special – just Russians celebrate the New Year. Yep, not everything in Russia is Tchaikovsky and Dostoevsky.

Luciana Benetti, 16, feeds her pet pig Chanchi, given to her for a birthday present the previous year in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, September 4, 2021. As the new coronavirus began to circulate last year, Benetti found her plans for a big traditional 15th birthday party scrapped. In its place, her parents gave her a pig. (Photo by Natacha Pisarenko/AP Photo)

Elizabeth Nicolaou, a final year student with the Royal Academy of Dance, strikes a pose on April 28, 2022 near the Cutty Sark ship in Greenwich, London ahead of International Dance Day. First celebrated in 1982, International Dance Day has taken place every year since in anniversary celebration of the birth of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810), considered the creator of modern ballet. (Photo by Guy Corbishley/Alamy Live News)

Foreign tourists who visited the “Boryeong Mud Festival” venue in Boryeong-si, Chungcheongnam-do on the July 19th, 2024 are having fun rolling around in a mud bath. The 27th Boryeong Mud Festival this year will be held until the 4th of next month. Last year, more than 1.6 million tourists visited the festival. (Phoot by Shin Hyeon-jong)

The picture dated May 14, 2025 shows the RAF Typhoon display pilot, Squadron Leader Nathan Shawyer, who has now completed his Public Display Authorisation, rehearsing over RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, UK ahead of this year's airshows. The RAF Typhoon display team will be participating in several airshows this year, including the Midlands Air Festival on May 30 and the English Riviera Airshow in Paignton Devon on May 31. (Photo by Claire Hartley/Bav Media)

Four-year-old Etta Syrett relaxes on one of two giant pumpkins at Pinetops Nurseries in Lymington, UK on September 22, 2025, affectionately named “Dumbledore” and ”Muggle”. Grown by twins Ian and Stuart Paton, each weighs an estimated 1,179 kg (2,600 lbs). The 64-year-old brothers were inspired by Hagrid’s pumpkin patch in Harry Potter and hope to break the world record. (Photo by Ollie Thompson/Solent News & Photo Agency)

In a simpler time all a child or an adult needed to enjoy the outdoors was a ball and a stick. Or maybe an old tire tied to a high branch to fashion a swing. And the only instruction given to children was to “be home before dark”. Now there are iPads and computers and television screens and shrinking safe public spaces. But despite the distractions and limitations of space, these images show the charm of kicking a ball or skipping rope endures. Sometimes with modifications as a nod to changing times. Here: in this Saturday, June 20, 2015 photo, a boy runs while playing with a motorcycle wheel in Samugari, Ayacucho, Peru. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

Revelers celebrate during fireworks marking the start of the New Year on Copacabana beach on January 1, 2017 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Brazilian revelers traditionally dress in white to honor the New Year's holiday along with the Brazilian Goddess of the Sea- Iemanja. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)