Photos of the Week: Buddha’s birthday, Jewish pilgrims
By Kit Doyle · May 6, 2026
(RNS) — Each week RNS presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s photo selection includes Buddha's birthday, Jewish pilgrims in Tunisia and more.
A humanoid robot, center, and Buddhist monks walk during an ordination ceremony at Jogye temple in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Cambodian Buddhist monks chant to mark the Buddhist Visak Bochea at Wat Phneat Sampily outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)
Buddhist monks pray during a religious ceremony in celebration of Buddha's birthday, at Botataung pagoda, Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Yangon, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
Jewish pilgrims take part in a procession at an annual pilgrimage at the Ghriba synagogue in the resort of Djerba, Tunisia, on Monday, May 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Bassem Aouini)
Jewish pilgrims light candles during an annual pilgrimage at the Ghriba synagogue in the resort of Djerba, Tunisia, on Monday, May 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Bassem Aouini)
Jewish pilgrims attend an annual pilgrimage at the Ghriba synagogue in the resort of Djerba, Tunisia, on Monday, May 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Bassem Aouini)
Ultra-Orthodox Jews dance around a bonfire during Lag BaOmer, a Jewish holiday traditionally marked by bonfire, music and communal celebrations, in Netanya, Israel, Monday, May 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
People dressed in traditional pollera conga dress ride boats during the 7th Pollera Congo Festival in Portobelo, Panama, Saturday, May 2, 2026. The vibrant celebration of Afro-colonial heritage also includes whip-wielding devils representing Spanish colonists and Congo participants celebrating freedom. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Archival Photos
Torah scrolls are carried in joyous procession around a Jerusalem synagogue on the holiday of Simchat Torah, the "Rejoicing of the Torah," in 1974. The festival marks the completion of the annual cycle of the reading of the Torah and the beginning of a new cycle, and it is marked with dancing, singing and drinking of wine. (RNS archive photo. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.)
Tools used by workmen and housewives in their daily labors are blessed outside the Church of the Open Door as part of a Labor Day service in Brooklyn, N.Y., in September 1953. Consecrating the implements, in the absence of the church's pastor, is Julius Garcia, a student at Union Theological Seminary in New York. (RNS archive photo by Irving Newman. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.)
