Photos of the Week: Carnival, Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday

By Jessi Dodge · February 27, 2023
 (RNS) — Each week Religion News Service presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s photo gallery includes Carnival celebrations around the world, Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday and more. A dancer from the Dragoes da Real samba school performs during a carnival parade in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday, Feb. 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) Performers from the Beija Flor samba school parade on a float during Carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Feb.21, 2023. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo) Carnival party host Laura Vargas, wrapped in party streamers, awaits during Challa Tuesday celebrations, in which devotees bury food, toss candies into the air and burn incense, all in a show of gratitude to Pachamama or Mother Earth, in Achocalla, Bolivia, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. The Andean ritual coincides with the Christian holiday Shrove Tuesday, the culmination of Carnival season, which officially begins each year on Jan. 6, the 12th day after Christmas, and closes with the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday. (AP Photo/Juan Karita) A carnival float depicts German Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne, fighting with an abuse devil during the traditional carnival parade in Duesseldorf, Germany, on Monday, Feb. 20, 2023. The foolish street spectacles in the carnival centers of Duesseldorf, Mainz and Cologne, watched by hundreds of thousands of people, are the highlights in Germany's carnival season on Rosemonday. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner) King of Zulu Nick Spears toasts from his float during the traditional Krewe of Zulu Parade on Mardi Gras Day in New Orleans, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) People vie for trinkets as members of the Krewe of Iris Madri Gras parade throw trinkets in New Orleans, Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023. Mardi Gras day this year falls on Feb. 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) Women listen to a prayer for fallen soldiers at Lviv cemetery, western Ukraine, on Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. Family members gathered at the military cemetery in Lviv for a "lights of memory" event to honor those who died fighting Russian invasion. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris) A "momotxorro'' participant takes part in the carnival in Alsasua, northern Spain, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. During the carnival Momotxorros, characters who seem to have been resurrected from a prehistoric ritual, come out onto the streets wearing horns and hiding their faces under headscarves, and dressed in a white sheet stained with blood. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos) Leaders from different religions conduct a multifaith prayer service for the victims of earthquakes in Turkey and Syria at the Turkish embassy, in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup) A lay minister places ash on the forehead of a devotee during Ash Wednesday rites Feb. 22, 2023, outside a church in downtown Manila, Philippines. Filipinos trooped to churches and had their foreheads marked with an ash cross in observance of Ash Wednesday, after a ban on the Lenten tradition the past several years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila) A Catholic priest places ash on the forehead of a person deprived of liberty during Ash Wednesday rites Feb. 22, 2023 at the Manila City Jail in Manila, Philippines. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila) Exile Tibetan Buddhist monks wait to serve tea and refreshments during an early morning prayer session to usher in the Year of the Water Hare in Dharamshala, India, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)
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