Spring holy days and festivals observed

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 Mehraj-u-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.

NIRANJAN SHRESTHA — AP PHOTO A Hindu man takes a holy bath before praying during Shivratri 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.

ANDREW MEDICHINI — AP PHOTO Pope Francis, surrounded by shells of destroyed churches, leads a prayer for the victims of war at Hosh al-Bieaa Church Square, in Mosul, Iraq, once the de-facto capital of IS.

NARIMAN EL-MOFTY — AP PHOTO An Orthodox Christian refugee who fled the conflict in the 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.

FELIPE DANA — AP PHOTO Members of the God’s Love Evangelical Church and Rehab Center pray for a woman in an area known as “cracolandia” or crackland, amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

MARCO UGARTE — AP PHOTO Actors put on their costumes prior a Palm Sunday passion play amid the coronavirus pandemic, outside Iztapalapa Cathedral, in Iztapalapa, a borough of Mexico City.