Photos of the Week: Remembering the dead

By Kit Doyle · November 5, 2025

(RNS) — Each week RNS presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s photo gallery includes holidays remembering the dead, such as Day of the Dead, All Saints' Day, All Souls' Day and more.

Families gather to keep company with their dearly departed while celebrating Day of the Dead at a cemetery in Arocutin, Michoacan state, Mexico, Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

A woman sits by the grave of a relative during Day of the Dead festivites at the Tarapaca cemetery in El Alto, Bolivia, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

A woman makes herself up for the traditional Catrina parade marking the Day of the Dead in Frankfurt, Germany, Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Mourners walk on the 'Votif' Bridge, a 407-meter temporary floating bridge connecting the city to the cemetery on the island of San Michele, to pay respects to their dead on All Souls' Day, in Venice, Italy, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Sugar skulls known as “calaveritas,” or little skulls, traditionally added to Day of the Dead altars honoring deceased loved ones, are displayed for sale at the Dulces de Ampudia market in Mexico City, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel)

Nuns of the Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by Saint Teresa, offer prayers by the graves of their loved ones on All Souls' Day, in Kolkata, India, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)

A member of an Aztec dance group holds incense during a commemoration of Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) at El Colegio High School in Minneapolis on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto)

Foreign peace activists and volunteers help Palestinian farmers harvest their olive trees in the West Bank town of Silwad, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Representatives carry flags from around the world during the opening of the 14th General Assembly of the World Evangelical Alliance, Oct. 27, 2025, in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo by Daoud Kuttab)

Volunteers prepare meals at the Philabundance Community Kitchen in Philadelphia, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Indian Sikh pilgrims enter Pakistan through the Wagah border crossing point to participate in celebrations marking the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, at Gurdwara Janam Asthan Nankana Sahib, near Lahore, Pakistan, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

Buddhists light candles during the full moon day of Tazaungmone, also known as lighting festival, at a pagoda Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Yangon, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

Archival Photos

A heavily damaged church near Nicosia, Cyprus, after the 1974 Turkish invasion. During the invasion, which followed an attempted coup d'etat of the Cypriote government by the military government of Greece, which fell as a result, Turkey captured the northern third of the island. Numerous Christian churches were damaged and destroyed during the fighting and large-scale looting of holy icons and other religious treasures were reported. Mosques were also damaged during the fighting. (RNS archive photo. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.)

Students arriving at Kanawha County's Midway Elementary School were greeted by a burned-out door after it and another elementary school were fire-bombed as violence escalated in the controversy over the use of supplemental English textbooks in public schools in the West Virginia county in 1974. Both bombs exploded in the schools before any children had arrived. Students were taken to neighboring schools for classes. Demonstrations against the books began with the start of the school year in September. Protesters charged that the materials were anti-Christian and anti-American. (RNS archive photo. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.)

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