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Worshippers burned aromatic incense sticks beneath red and yellow paper lanterns to celebrate the Lunar New Year outside a famed Taoist temple in Hong Kong.

A holy man lay on the ground before an image of the Hindu goddess of learning during the Magh Mela festival in Prayagraj, India, where ritual bathing in the sacred confluence of rivers can cleanse one’s sins.

And a churchgoer in Mexico City cradled a figure of the Christ child in his arms while waiting in a chapel pew to have it blessed on the Roman Catholic feast of Candlemas, commemorating the presentation of Jesus Christ into the Temple.

February was a month full of religious holidays and festivals for all manner of faith traditions, as captured by AP photographers around the globe.

Many rites, traditions and observances continue to be affected by the coronavirus pandemic, more than a year after the disease was first identified.

On the Catholic holy day of Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of Lent, everyone from a uniformed New York police officer to Mass attendees at St. Joseph Cathedral in Hyderabad, India, could be seen with not only the traditional cross-shaped smudges on their foreheads but also face masks.

Others donned full-body protective gear, such as the Jewish burial society workers who prepared the corpse of a covid-19 victim for funeral in Jerusalem, or the Rhode Island field hospital employee who took a moment away from her duties to pray for a sick grandfather far away in Puerto Rico.

Elsewhere the pandemic’s impact manifested itself in absence: In Belgrade, Patriarch Porfirije, the new head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, celebrated the Divine Liturgy surrounded by clergy in an ornate chamber after his predecessor, Patriarch Irinej, died in November of complications from the virus.

(AP/Valentina Petrova) Worshippers gather around candles stuck to jars of honey, arranged as a cross, during mass for the ‘sanctification of honey’ at the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin church in the town of Blagoevgrad, south of the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, on Feb. 10. Despite the pandemic, Bulgarian Orthodox Church marks the day of St. Haralampus, Orthodox patron saint of bee-keepers, by performing a ritual for health and rich harvest.

(AP/Bruna Prado) Priestess Laura D’Oya Yalorixa (center) takes part in an Umbanda religious ceremony at the Casa de Caridade Santa Barbara Iansa temple in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Feb. 6. The faithful of the Umbanda religion, brought to America by West African slaves, perform spiritual protection rituals as part of pre-Carnival traditions.

(AP/Rajesh Kumar Singh) A Hindu Holy man lies in front of an image of Hindu Goddess of learning Saraswati, at Sangam, the sacred confluence of the rivers Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati, during Magh Mela festival in Prayagraj, India on Feb. 16. Hindus believe ritual bathing on auspicious days can cleanse them of all sins.

(AP/Ariel Schalit) Muslim men gather to pray during a protest against Police lack of enforcement and recent rise in violence Arab communities in the northern Arab Israeli town of Umm el-Fahm, Israel, on Feb. 5. More than 2,000 people protested outside the local police station, and blocked main roads in the area.

(AP/Mahesh Kumar A.) Catholics offer prayers during a mass in observance of Ash Wednesday at the St. Joseph Cathedral in Hyderabad, India, on Feb. 17. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, a solemn period of 40 days of prayer and self-denial leading up to Easter.

(AP/Rajesh Kumar Singh) An elderly pilgrim prays after a holy dip at the Sangam in Prayagraj, India, on Feb. 11.

Worshippers wearing face masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus burn joss sticks as they pray at the Wong Tai Sin Temple in Hong Kong on Feb. 12 to celebrate the Lunar New Year which marks the Year of the Ox in the Chinese zodiac. (AP/Kin Cheung)