Florin Bors, aged 8 from Bacau, northern Romania, wearing a bear fur takes a break from performing a holiday season ritual in Bucharest, Romania, Tuesday, December 16, 2014. In pre-Christian rural traditions, dancers wearing colored costumes or animal furs, touring house to house in villages singing and dancing to ward off evil. In recent years following the economic downturn in Romania, a European Union member since 2007, the tradition has moved to Romania's cities where dancers travel to perform the ritual for money. (Photo by Octav Ganea/AP Photo/Mediafax)

Waura Indians wrestle during this year's “quarup”, a ritual held over several days to honour in death a person of great importance to them, in Xingu National Park, Mato Grosso State, Brazil August 25, 2013. (Photo by Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters)

An Indian woman performs rituals near the body of her husband who died of COVID-19 in Gauhati, India, Monday, September 28, 2020. India’s confirmed coronavirus tally has reached 6 million cases, keeping the country second to the United States in number of reported cases since the pandemic began. (Photo by Anupam Nath/AP Photo)

An Indian boy sells flowers to Hindu devotees of Lord Shiva as they perform rituals after collecting water from the river Ganges during the holy month of Shravan, In Allahabad on July 22, 2019. Shravan is considered the holiest month in the Hindu calendar with many religious festivals and ceremonies. (Photo by Sanjay Kanojia/AFP Photo)

A married Hindu woman performs rituals around a banyan tree at Vat Savitri festival in Ahmedabad, India, Tuesday, June 14, 2022. Vat Savitri is celebrated on a full moon day where women pray for the longevity of their husbands. (Photo by Ajit Solanki/AP Photo)

An effigy representing Judas Iscariot burns as some people wearing masks watch during Holy Week in the Catia neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, April 4, 2021. The Burning of Judas is an Easter-time ritual in many communities, where an effigy of Judas Iscariot is hanged on Good Friday, then burned on Easter Sunday. (Photo by Matias Delacroix/AP Photo)

“People of the River”. This is a Karo tribe family; father, mother, two sisters and two brothers. The tribe, who live along the Omo River in east Africa, incorporate rich symbolism into their rituals by using ornate body art, headdresses and body scarification to express beauty and significance. (Photo by Jatenipat Ketpradit/International Portrait Photographer of the Year)

Participants pass an egg using their mouths during a religious ritual as they play the role of traditional fighters in a parade during the Popo (Mask) Carnival of Bonoua, in the east of Abidjan, April 18, 2015. The carnival has its origins in the changes that Aboure youths in Bonoua introduced to the annual festival of yams. (Photo by Luc Gnago/Reuters)