(RNS) — Each week RNS presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s gallery looks back at some of the best photographs from 2024.
People use their umbrellas to catch candies during the "Cabalgata de Reyes" Epiphany parade in Barcelona, Spain, Friday, Jan. 5, 2024. Christians around the world will mark Epiphany on Jan. 6 with a series of celebrations that go from parades and gift-giving for children to the blessing of water. The holiday is also called the Feast of Epiphany, Three Kings Day and Theophany. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Hasidic Jewish students observe as law enforcement establishes a perimeter around a breached wall in the global headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, where students had dug a tunnel, Monday, Jan. 8, 2024, in New York. A group of Hasidic Jewish worshippers were arrested amid a dispute over a secret tunnel built beneath Chabad headquarters, setting off a brawl between police and those who tried to defend the makeshift passageway. (Bruce Schaff via AP)
Faithful Ethiopian Christians celebrating 'Ketera', the eve of Ethiopian Epiphany (Timket) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Friday, Jan. 19, 2024. Timket, Ethiopia's Feast of the Epiphany, is one of the highest and holiest holidays in the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian calendar and is celebrated on 19th January every year. (AP Photo/Anteneh Girma)
The Ram Mandir, a temple dedicated to Hindu deity Lord Ram, was inaugurated in Ayodhya, India, Monday, Jan. 22, 2024. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened the controversial Hindu temple built on the ruins of an ancient mosque in the holy city of Ayodhya in a grand event that is expected to galvanize Hindu voters months before a general election. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Purepecha Indigenous women set down burning copal incense during a rest stop as they walk from Erongaricuaro, where residents kept a flame alive for one year, to Ocumicho in Michoacan state, Mexico, Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024. To mark the new year, based on an ancient lunar calendar, a new flame was lit during a “New Fire” ceremony on Feb. 2. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
A devotee takes part in a ritual honoring the African sea goddess Yemanja, along the shore of Ramirez beach, in Montevideo, Uruguay, Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. Worshippers visit the beach on Yemanja's feast day, bearing candles, flowers, honey and fruit to honor the deity. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)
Hearts with messages cover a tree outside the Basilica of St. Valentine in Terni, Italy, on Feb. 13, 2024. (RNS photo/Claire Giangravé)
Kashmiri Muslim brides sit during a mass marriage of 30 couples in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024. Mass weddings in India are organized by social organizations primarily to help economically weaker families who cannot afford the high ceremony costs as well as the customary dowry and expensive gifts that are still prevalent in many communities. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)
Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, wearing a yellow ceremonial hat of the Gelug school, performs a ritual during a short sermon on the 15th day of the first Tibetan month at the Tsuglakhang temple in Dharamshala, India, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)
A man wears a Make America Pray Again hat before former President Donald Trump speaks at the National Religious Broadcasters convention at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center, Feb. 22, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Relatives and friends pay their last respects at the coffin of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny following his funeral in the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Soothe My Sorrows, in Moscow, Russia, Friday, March 1, 2024. (AP Photo)
Hindu devotees wait in a queue to enter a temple to offer prayers during Shivaratri festival in Jammu, India, India, Friday, March 8, 2024. Shivaratri, or the night of Shiva, is dedicated to the worship of Lord Shiva, the Hindu god of death and destruction. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)
Palestinians perform the first Friday prayers of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan near the ruins of a mosque destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in Rafah, Gaza Strip, March 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
A woman dances as she participates in a procession to mark Falgun Mahotsav ahead of Holi, the Hindu festival of colors, in Hyderabad, India, Wednesday, March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A., File)
A worshiper burns incense during the procession of La Merced Church celebrating Palm Sunday at the start of Holy Week in Antigua, Guatemala, Sunday, March 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
Ruben Enaje, center, portrays Jesus on the cross, flanked by two other devotees, during a reenactment of Jesus Christ's sufferings as part of Good Friday rituals in San Pedro Cutud, north of Manila, Philippines, Friday, March 29, 2024. The Filipino villager has reenacted Jesus' suffering for 35 years. He said he is praying for peace in Ukraine, Gaza and the disputed South China Sea. (AP Photo/Gerard V. Carreon)
A colorful sawdust carpet, or alfombra, is seen before a Good Friday procession organized by Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Washington, D.C. on Friday, March 29, 2024. (RNS photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)
Iranian Shiite Muslims place copies of the Quran on their heads as they pray in Laylat al-Qadr, or the Night of Destiny, during the holy fasting month of Ramadan after midnight, at the shrine of Saint Saleh in northern Tehran, Iran, early Monday, April 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Muslims celebrate Eid al-Fitr outside al-Seddik mosque in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, April 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Israeli soldiers look at chairs reserved for hostages held in Gaza at a Passover Seder table on April 11, 2024, at the communal dining hall at Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel. A quarter of all Kibbutz Nir Oz residents were killed or captured by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
Pope Francis accepts a scarf as a gift at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
A sign is displayed at the pro-Palestinian campus encampment at Columbia University in New York, April 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
Christian musician Sean Feucht, center right with arm raised, and pastor Russell Johnson, center left, participate in the “United for Israel” march around Columbia University, Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Manhattan, New York. (RNS photo/Fiona André)
Pilgrims rest on a bench while celebrating the feat day of Saint George in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, April 24, 2024. Hundreds of Haitians flocked to a hill nestled in the capital of Port-au-Prince on Wednesday for the annual celebration of St. George, a Christian martyr who was believed to be a Roman soldier and is revered by both Catholics and those who practice Vodou. They offered him money and prayers in hopes they would make it through Haiti's crisis. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Pope Francis is greeted by gondoliers upon his arrival in Venice, Italy, Sunday, April 28, 2024. The Pontiff arrived for his first-ever visit to the lagoon town including the Vatican pavilion at the 60th Biennal of Arts. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
First United Methodist Church in Charlotte, N.C., hosted hundreds of LGBTQ people and their allies May 1, 2024, for a celebratory sing-along after the United Methodist General Conference lifted a ban on gay ordination. (RNS photos/Yonat Shimron)
Christian Orthodox pilgrims hold candles during the Holy Fire ceremony at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and rose from the dead, in the Old City of Jerusalem, Saturday, May 4, 2024. In the annual ceremony that has been observed for over a millennium, a flame taken from Jesus' tomb is used to light the candles of fervent believers. The devout believe the origin of the flame is a miracle and is shrouded in mystery. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
People take part in a bun snatching competition during the annual Bun Festival on Cheung Chau Island, Hong Kong, Thursday, May 16, 2024. The annual festival has Taoist origins. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
People release lanterns during the celebration of Vesak, which marks the day of Buddha's birth, death and enlightenment at the 9th century Borobudur Temple in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia, Thursday, May 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Slamet Riyadi)
A horseman, wearing a decorative bull mask, and mounted on a prancing horse, attends the Feast of the Divine celebrations, backdropped by the Our Lady of the Rosary Parish, as part of the “Cavalhadas” festival, in Pirenopolis, Goias state, Brazil, Saturday, May 18, 2024. The tradition of the "Cavalhadas" or masked horsemen's festival was brought to Brazil in the 1800s by a Portuguese priest to celebrate the "Holy Spirit" and to commemorate the medieval victory of Iberian Christian knights over the Moors. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
"La Morenada" dancers perform in the annual parade honoring the "Lord of Great Power" in La Paz, Bolivia, Saturday, May 25, 2024. Bolivians celebrate one of the country's biggest and most extravagant religious festivals which pays tribute to Jesus in a fusion of Indigenous beliefs and Catholicism. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
A woman touches her forehead to the trunk of a banyan tree after tying a tread around it as part of the rituals to mark Vat Purnima festival, in Prayagraj, India, Thursday, June 06, 2024. Vat Purnima, also called Vat Savitri, is celebrated on a full moon day where married women pray for the longevity of their husbands. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
A man, his face painted in the likeness of a spirit, participates in the He Neak Ta rituals in Phum Boeung village, northwest of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Tuesday, June 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)
A Saudi man embroiders Islamic calligraphy, using either pure silver threads or silver threads plated with gold, during the final stages in the preparation of a drape, or Kiswa, that covers the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure at the heart the Grand Mosque, at the Kiswa factory in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, June 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
People wearing traditional Russian village-style clothes celebrate the summer solstice near a bonfire in the village of Okunevo, about 125 miles northeast of the Siberian city of Omsk, Russia, in Okunevo, Russia, late Thursday, June 20, 2024. The festivities of Ivan Kupala, or John the Baptist, are similar to Mardi Gras and reflect pre-Christian Slavic traditions and practices. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Sofiychuk)
A Catholic boy walks towards the church of Saint John the Baptist during the “Taong Putik,” or mud people festival, at Bibiclat, Nueva Ecija province, northern Philippines, Monday, June 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
A riverboat carrying the Eucharist cruises down the Ohio River between Wellsburg, West Virginia, and Brilliant, Ohio, Sunday, June 23, 2024. The voyage is part of a two-month series of cross-country pilgrimages focused on the Eucharist, seeking to raise devotion around a sacrament in which Catholics believe they encounter Jesus' real presence. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)
Newly elected Bulgarian Patriarch Daniil blesses the people during his enthronement ceremony at Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia, Bulgaria, Sunday, June 30, 2024. Bulgaria's Orthodox Church on Sunday elected Daniil, a 52-year-old metropolitan considered to be pro-Russian, as its new leader in a disputed vote that reflects the divisions in the church and in the society. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)
President Joe Biden, right, joins senior pastor Bishop J. Louis Felton during a church service at Mount Airy Church of God in Christ, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Exiled Tibetan school girls in a traditional costumes eat cakes and sweets as they wait to perform a traditional dance at an event to celebrate the 89th birthday of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, at the Tsuglakhang temple in Dharamshala, India, Saturday, July 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)
Iraqi Shiites perform a self-flagellation ritual ahead of the Ashoura holiday in Najaf, Iraq, July 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil)
The destroyed chapel at First Baptist Church of Dallas on July 20, 2024, after a large fire the night before. (Photo courtesy of First Baptist Dallas)
Hundreds of demonstrators protest against the military policies of Israel in the rotunda of the Cannon House Office Building at the Capitol in Washington,Tuesday, July 23, 2024. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)
Mourners from the Druze community surround the bodies of some of the 12 children and teens killed in a rocket strike at a soccer field, in the village of Majdal Shams at the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Tennessee Titans cornerback L'Jarius Sneed, bottom center, leads the cornerbacks and safeties in a prayer after an NFL football training camp practice Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. Sneed did not participate in practice. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski)
Men put the remains of their deceased relatives into a tower during a traditional mass cremation called ''ngaben'' on Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in Manggis, Bali, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)
The sun sets as Shiite pilgrims march on their way to Karbala for Arbaeen in Babil, Iraq, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Surf Church's pastor, the Rev. Samuel Cianelli, walks into the Atlantic Ocean to surf with his congregation in Matosinhos beach in the suburbs of Porto, Portugal on Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao)
Mourners pray during a vigil for the slain students and teachers at Apalachee High School, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024, in Winder, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Devotees immerse an idol of elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesha in the Arabian Sea, during the ten-day-long Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Tibetan monks create a mandala using colored sand during the annual International Day of Peace, in Times Square, Saturday Sept. 21, 2024 in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
Orthodox Jews dance at the tomb of Rabbi Nachman, the great grandson of the founder of the Hasidic movement, to mark the Jewish new year in the town of Uman, 125 miles south of Ukraine's capital Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
People visit the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of revelers were killed or abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, on the one-year anniversary of the attack, near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Karim Alshurafa, left, addresses an interfaith vigil at Schenley Park, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (RNS photo/Kathryn Post)
Participants attend a session of the 16th General Assembly of the Synod on Synodality at the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
A member of the Grupo Coatlicue blows on a conch shell during a performance of a traditional Aztec dance, an agricultural prayer ceremony in motion, during an Indigenous Peoples' Day event, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Latino leaders pray over Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, front center, as he participates in a roundtable with Latino leaders Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Doral, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris attends a church service at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Ga., Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Linda Chapman of Waterbury, Conn., left, a member of the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc., talks with U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-Conn., at a Souls to the Polls voting rally at Grace Baptist Church, Oct. 26, 2024, in Waterbury, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
A man holds a candle as he prays at the grave of a deceased relative during All Souls Day, in Guwahati, India, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)
Ellen Gardiner, 6, leaves an "I voted" sticker on the headstone of Susan B. Anthony at Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Ukrainian service members hold candles during a memorial ceremony marking 1,000 days of the Russia-Ukraine war in Kyiv, Ukraine, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A participant dressed as Ba Jia Jiang (eight generals), Chinese guardians of the gods, is purified by firecrackers during a temple festival marking the birthday of traditional Taoist deity "Qingshan Wang" or "Ling''an Zunwang" in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Bangladeshi Hindu leader Krishna Das Prabhu shows a victory sign as he is taken in a police van after a court ordered him detained pending further proceedings in Chattogram in southeastern Bangladesh, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP photo)
People pray at The Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Bernard prior to a Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe procession to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, early Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024. (RNS photo/Fiona Murphy)
Syrians gather during a celebratory demonstration following the first Friday prayers since Bashar al-Assad's ouster, in Damascus' central square, Syria, Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Whirling dervishes of the Mevlevi order perform Sema prayer ceremonies, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, at Konya stadium in Konya, Turkey. (Photo by David I. Klein)
