Photos of the Week: Winter solstice, Christmas preparations

By Kit Doyle · December 23, 2021

(RNS) - Each week Religion News Service presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s photo gallery includes the winter solstice, Christmas preparations and more.

Workers finish an oversized Nativity scene at the P'esko Ujyana Ecological Park in Oruro, Bolivia, Saturday, Dec. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

People walk past an illuminated church ahead of Christmas in Ahmedabad, India, Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2021. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

Walker Baker, 5, of Hagerstown, Maryland., visits with Santa Claus, portrayed by volunteer Wayne Hutzell, of Williamsport, Maryland., during Prison Fellowship's Angel Tree event for children of the incarcerated, Sunday Dec. 19, 2021 at Hub City Vineyard church in Hagerstown. The Prison Fellowship's Angel Tree is expected to deliver gifts to about 300,000 kids nationwide this year. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)

A mother sits with her newborn daughter at a soup kitchen in the San Miguel Archangel church as a part of Christmas celebrations in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021. The soup kitchen annually serves a traditional Venezuelan Christmas meal for about 200 children, including nursing mothers. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

A woman hangs a paper note bearing her New Year wishes on a wire at a Buddhist temple in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Defrocked American priest Richard Daschbach, center right, sits in the defendant's chair during his trial in Oecusse, East Timor, Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021. Daschbach, accused of sexually abusing orphaned and disadvantaged girls under his care, was found guilty and sentenced to 12 years in prison, in the first case of its kind in the staunchly Catholic nation. (AP Photo/David dos Santos Gusmao)

Mourners at the funeral of Yehuda Dimentman, 25, who was killed by a Palestinian gunman near the Jewish outpost of Homesh in the West Bank, Friday, Dec. 17, 2021. At least one gunman opened fire Thursday night at a car filled with Jewish seminary students next to a West Bank settlement outpost, killing Dimentman and wounding two others, Israeli officials said. (AP Photo/Moti Milrod)

Whirling dervishes perform during a Sheb-i Arus ceremony in Konya, central Turkey on Friday, Dec. 17, 2021. Every December the Anatolian city hosts a series of events to commemorate the death of 13th century Islamic scholar, poet and Sufi mystic Jalaladdin Rumi. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Residents line up to eat dumplings, a winter solstice tradition, in Beijing, China, Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

The sundial at the Capitol in Olympia, Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021. Tuesday was the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. A variety of religious traditions have rituals specific to the solstice. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Indian Christian nuns and others hold placards denouncing proposed legislation in the country's southern state of Karnataka, during a protest march in Bengaluru, India, Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2021. India's ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party introduced a bill in the Karnataka legislative assembly Tuesday that lays out a prison term between 3 to 10 years for anyone found guilty of using employment, allurement or marriage to force someone to change religion. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

The Satanic Temple Illinois supporters, top center, surround a baby Baphomet holiday display in the Illinois Statehouse rotunda in Springfield, Illinois, Dec. 20, 2021. Catholic protesters are on the right. Photo by Sharper for the Satanic Temple Illinois

Sikh guards stand holding spears as devotees arrive for worship at the Golden Temple, one of Sikhs' most revered shrines in Amritsar, India, Sunday, Dec.19, 2021. A man was beaten to death Saturday after he allegedly attempted to commit a sacrilegious act inside the historic temple. (AP Photo/Prabhjot Gill)