As yellow-orange flames crackle nearby, two girls embrace. One holds a piece of bread; around them, Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jews burn leavened foodstuffs that are forbidden during Passover as part of the commemoration of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt.
Hindu women and children caked in neon hues grin during massive, joyful celebrations of the Holi festival in India, marked by the throwing of colorful powder and the spraying of water.
And in Indian-controlled Kashmir, women raise their hands in prayer at a holy shrine on the occasion of Mehraju-Alam, believed to celebrate the ascension of the Prophet Muhammad to heaven.
All of these are images captured by AP photographers in March, as springtime ushered in a host of religious holidays and festivals observed by the faithful around the world.
There was Shivratri, dedicated to the worship of Shiva, the Hindu god of death and destruction, which a holy man
in Nepal celebrated with a sacred bath and then prayer. And the Maslenitsa festival, an Orthodox Christian holiday that was marked in a snowy Russian village with the torching of a wooden construction ringed by a crowd of onlookers.
And of course there was Palm Sunday, celebrated in commemoration of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.
In Bolivia, crosses woven from lush palm fronds were arrayed on a blue tarp for sale outside the San Francisco Basilica.
In Israel, beaming nuns took a group selfie atop the Mount of Olives with their masks down below their chins. A year after pandemic restrictions halted mass gatherings, the country has undertaken an aggressive vaccination campaign allowing many aspects of normal life to return.
That was a stark contrast with the scene at Saint Peter Parish Church in the Philippines, where a priest walked past empty pews with lit candles in preparation for an online Mass after the government banned religious activities during Holy Week and toughened lockdown measures to try to contain an alarming surge of the coronavirus.
These and more are among the AP’s top faithrelated images from March.
(AP/Oded Balilty)
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men and children burn leavened items in final preparation for the Passover holiday in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish town of Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, Israel. Jews are forbidden to eat leavened foodstuffs during the Passover holiday that celebrates the biblical story of the Israelites’ escape from slavery and exodus from Egypt.
(AP/Nariman El-Mofty)
An Orthodox Christian refugee who fled the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region reads prayers with his son in front of a church at the Hamdeyat Transition Center near the Sudan-Ethiopia border, eastern Sudan. Political tensions between Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and the Tigray leaders who once dominated the country’s government exploded in November into war.
(AP/Chiang Ying-ying)
Myanmar nationals living in Taiwan pray for victims and express their disdain against the military regime in Myanmar during a demonstration at Liberty Square in Taipei, Taiwan.
(AP Photo/Musa Sadulayev)
An elderly Chechen man walks to pray at a snow-covered cemetery, a memorial to the Stalin-era deportation’s victims, in Grozny, Russia. Chechens and Ingush were victims of the 1944 deportations to the barren steppes of then-Soviet Central Asia.
(AP/Andrew Medichini)
An Iraqi security officer follows the prayer session led by Pope Francis for the victims of war at Hosh al-Bieaa Church Square in Mosul, Iraq. The long 2014-2017 war to drive IS out left ransacked homes and charred or pulverized buildings around the north of Iraq, all sites Francis visited.
(AP/Niranjan Shrestha)
A Hindu man takes a holy bath before praying during Shivratr festival at Pashupatinath temple premises in Kathmandu, Nepal Shivratri, or the night of Shiva, is dedicated to the worship of Lord Shiva, the Hindu god of death and destruction.
A woman closes her eyes as she prays during a vigil and rally against Asian hate crimes at Chicago’s Horner Park. The event is organized by local Chicago organizations led by Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. (AP/Shafkat Anowar)
(AP/Dar Yasin)
A Kashmiri Shiite Muslim girl lights candles at the grave of her relative to mark Shab-e- Barat, on the outskirts of Srinagar, Kashmir. Muslims visit ancestral graveyards for the salvation of the souls of the departed and also believe that all sins will be forgiven by praying to Allah throughout the Shab-e Barat night.
(AP/Dar Yasin) (AP/Khalil Hamra)
Kashmiri Muslim women pray as the head priest displays a relic at the Hazratbal shrine on the occasion of Mehraj-u-Alam, believed to mark the ascension of Prophet Muhammad to heaven, in Srinagar, Kashmir,. Christians take part in Palm Sunday Mass at the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Family in Gaza City.
(AP/Anupam Nath)
Indians smeared in color participate in Holi festival celebrations in Gauhati, India. Hindus threw colored powder and sprayed water in massive Holi celebrations despite many Indian states restricting gatherings to try to contain a coronavirus resurgence rippling across the country.
(AP/Mahmoud Illean)
Nuns pose for a selfie as they mark Palm Sunday on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. A year after coronavirus restrictions halted mass gatherings, Christians are celebrating Holy Week together.
(AP/Oded Balilty)
An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man rests after receiving his second dose of the Pfizer vaccine at a coronavirus vaccination center set up at a synagogue in Bnei Brak, Israel.
(AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Tourists sit on a boat and watch Hindu priests perform evening rituals on the banks of the River Ganges in Varanasi, India, on March 14. Varanasi is among the world’s oldest cities, and millions of Hindu pilgrims gather annually here for ritual bathing and prayers in the Ganges River, considered holiest by Hindus.
(AP/Dmitry Serebryakov)
People watch a castle-shape wooden construction burning as part of celebrations at the Maslenitsa (Shrovetide) festival at the Nikola-Lenivets art park in Nikola-Lenivets village, about 125 miles southwest of Moscow. Maslenitsa is an Orthodox Christian holiday celebrated in the last week before the Orthodox Lent.
(AP/Juan Karita)
Palm fronds made into crosses decorated with Jesus Christ lay for sale outside the San Francisco Basilica in La Paz Bolivia.
(AP/Marco Ugarte)
Actors put on their costumes prior to a Palm Sunday passion play amid the coronavirus pandemic outside Iztapalapa Cathe dral, in Iztapalapa, a borough of Mexico City.