Photos of the Week

This week’s gallery includes images from the Shiite Ashura commemoration, events around Yom Kippur and more.

An Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man of the Vizhnitz Hassidic sect prays on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean Sea as he participates in a Tashlich ceremony in Herzeliya, Israel, on Sept. 17, 2018. Tashlich, which means

(RNS) — Each week Religion News Service presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s gallery includes images from the Shiite Ashura commemoration, events around Yom Kippur and more.

An Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man of the Vizhnitz Hasidic sect prays on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean Sea as he participates in a Tashlich ceremony in Herzeliya, Israel, on Sept. 17, 2018. Tashlich, which means “to cast away” in Hebrew, is the practice in which Jews go to a large flowing body of water and symbolically “throw away” their sins by throwing a piece of bread, or similar food, into the water before the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)


Muslim Shiite women mourn during the holy day of Ashura at the Sadat Akhavi Mosque in Tehran, Iran, on Sept. 20, 2018. Ashura is the annual Shiite commemoration of the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, at the Battle of Karbala in present-day Iraq in the 7th century. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Nepalese sculptor Shyam Narayan Pandit, 54, right, makes finishing touches to a statute of Vishwakarma, the Hindu god of craftsman and architects, on the eve of the Vishwakarma Puja festival in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Sept. 16, 2018. Pandit’s family has been making idols of various deities for generations. The price of idols varies anywhere from $30 to $70. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Blood, caused by self-flagellation, runs down the face of a Kashmiri Shiite Muslimvas he participates in a Muharram procession in central Srinagar, in Indian controlled Kashmir, on Sept. 19, 2018. Police in the Indian portion of Kashmir detained hundreds of mourners as they defied restrictions imposed by authorities, fearing religious processions marking the Muslim month of Muharram would turn into anti-India protests. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

An Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man swings a chicken over his friend’s head as part of the Kaparot ritual in Beit Shemesh, Israel, on Sept. 17, 2018. Observant Jews believe the ritual transfers one’s sins from the past year into the chicken, and is performed before the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish year which started at sundown Tuesday. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Sam Young wipes his eyes during a press conference on Sept. 16, 2018, in Salt Lake City. Young, a Mormon man who led a campaign criticizing the church’s practice of allowing closed-door, one-on-one interviews of youth by lay leaders, was excommunicated from the church. Young read a verdict letter for the first time Sunday that had been delivered to him following an earlier disciplinary hearing with local church leaders in Houston. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

An Indian artisan smokes as he works on idols of Hindu goddess Durga inside a workshop in Gauhati, India, on Sept. 20, 2018. The idols are being made for worship for the upcoming Durga Puja festival. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

Nepalese Buddhist monks participate in a parade to mark Constitution Day in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Sept. 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)


White sheets are displayed and people line the streets in Palermo, Italy, on Sept. 15, 2018, in preparation for the arrival of Pope Francis in the Sicilian neighborhood where Rev. Giuseppe “Pino” Puglisi was killed 25 years ago. Pope Francis is paying tribute to the priest who worked to keep youth away from the Mafia and was slain by mobsters. Francis flew to the Mediterranean island to mark the 25th anniversary of Puglisi’s death. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

A church sits in floodwaters as U.S. Army Spc. Daniel Ochoa rides in the back of a high water vehicle while searching for residents to evacuate in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence in Spring Lake, N.C., on Sept. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish males of the Vizhnitz Hasidic sect listen to their rabbi on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean as they participate in a Tashlich ceremony in Herzliya, Israel, on Sept. 17, 2018. Tashlich, which means “to cast away” in Hebrew, is the practice in which Jews go to a large flowing body of water and symbolically “throw away” their sins by throwing a piece of bread, or similar food, into the water before the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, which started at sundown Tuesday. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

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