A Nihang Sikh, belonging to the Sikh warrior clan, performs Gatka, a form of Sikh martial arts, during a religious procession marking the 350th martyrdom anniversary of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji in New Delhi, India, 25 November 2025. The procession commemorates the martyrdom of the 9th Sikh Guru, Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji, who was executed in 1675 AD for refusing to convert to Islam on the orders of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. The event is observed at Gurudwara Sis Ganj in Delhi. Guru Tegh Bahadur, the youngest of the five sons of Guru Hargobind, was born in Amritsar in 1621. (Photo by Rajat Gupta/EPA)

“Mehndi or menhdi is the application of henna as a temporary form of skin decoration in India, as well as by expatriate communities from the country. The word mehndi is derived from the Sanskrit word mendhikā. The use of mehndi and turmeric is described in the earliest Vedic ritual books. Haldi (Staining oneself with turmeric paste) as well as mehndi are important Vedic customs as a symbolic representation of the Outer and the Inner Sun. Vedic customs are meant to awaken the “inner light” and so the gold of the inner Sun has an important symbolic function”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Application of henna or “Mehndi” to a girls hand in a market on October 18, 2010 in Jaipur, India. (Photo by Simon de Trey-White/Getty Images)

Kumari Samita Bajracharya sits in front of devotees offers during a special puja at Kumari Ghar in Patan, Nepal, 09 April 2011. It is believed that worshipping Kumari and receiving tika from her reduces illness and avoid problems. Kumari, or Kumari Devi, is a “living goddess”. The word literally means virgin in Nepali. The Living Goddesses are young pre-pubescent girls that are considered to be incarnations of the Hindu Goddess of Power, Kali. The Kumari retires when she reaches puberty. (Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA)

A woman spends her time outdoors to observe the ancient festival of Sizdeh Bedar, an annual public picnic day on the 13th day of the Iranian new year, at the Tochal mountainous area northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, April, 2, 2017. Sizdeh Bedar, which comes from the Farsi words for “thirteen” and “day out”, is a legacy from Iran's pre-Islamic past that hard-liners in the Islamic Republic never managed to erase from calendars. (Photo by Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo)

A Hindu devotee lies on a road as the holy “Rath”, or the chariot of lord Jagannath, passed over her during the Rath Yatra, or chariot procession in Karachi, Pakistan, July 17, 2016. Ratha-jatra is derived from two Odia words ratha/rotho meaning “chariot” and jatra meaning “journey”. The festival involves an annual procession (journey) of a deity's idols. Other names for the festival include ratha jatra or chariot festival. (Photo by Akhtar Soomro/Reuters)

A masquerade dances to drums along the streets during the kankurang Festival in Janjanbureh on January 27, 2024. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005, Kankurang, a combination of the Mandingo words “kango” and “Kurango”, literally translated as “voice” and “force”, ensures the transmission and teaching of the values and practices that form the basis of Mandingo cultural identity, a West African people whose historical home was the Mali empire. (Photo by Muhamadou Bittaye/AFP Photo)

A patient solves a rubik's cube at a temporary hospital converted from “Wuhan Livingroom” in central China's Hubei Province on February 10, 2020. In face of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic, Wuhan authorities have transformed public venues such as exhibition centers and gymnasiums into temporary hospitals. The hospitals have a large capacity of treating patients with mild symptoms and play an important role in isolating the source of infection and cutting off the routes of infection during epidemic prevention. The first batch of patients was hospitalized on Feb. 5. (Photo by Chine Nouvelle/SIPA Press/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Nigerian fashion models are made up for their fashion show to promote ethnic fashion June 13, 2006 in Tel Aviv, Israel. The models said they hope to use the travelling show as a springboard to international fame, in the words of one, “to be the next Naomi Campbell”. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)