This week, Christians around the world celebrate Holy Week and Easter, commemorating the final days of Jesus Christ—his return to Jerusalem, his crucifixion, and his resurrection. Families attend church services, hooded penitents take part in processions, and artists and families decorate Easter eggs. In Catholic Passion plays, participants depict Jesus’s trial and death. Other local rituals draw heavily on earlier pre-Christian traditions. Collected here are images from several Holy Week activities this year.
Scenes From Holy Week
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Catholics carry a statue of Jesus Nazareno in a procession known as Jesus Nazareno of the tapes during Holy Week in Cot, Costa Rica, 25 kilometers east of San Jose, on April 12, 2017. According to Jorge Masis, a priest at the church, people tie ribbons to the statue to symbolize promises they make to Jesus during Holy Week. #
Ezequiel Becerra / AFP / Getty -
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Latin Catholic clergymen hold candles as they circle the Anointing Stone during the Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday) mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City on April 13, 2017. #
Gali Tibbon / AFP / Getty -
Ethiopian Orthodox Christian women attend a washing of the feet ceremony at Deir El Sultan monastery on top of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, traditionally believed to be the site of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus Christ, in Jerusalem, on April 13, 2017. #
Dan Balilty / AP -
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Actors dressed as demons participate in a ceremony known as Los Talciguines, as part of religious activities to mark the start of Holy Week in Texistepeque, El Salvador, on April 10, 2017. #
Jose Cabezas / Reuters -
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A penitent holds a rosary while taking part in the procession of the Exaltacion de La Santa Cruz brotherhood, during Holy Week in Zaragoza, Spain, on April 13, 2017. #
Alvaro Barrientos / AP -
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Penitents of the Real Hermandad del Santisimo Cristo de las Injurias parade during the Silence procession during Holy Week in the northwestern Spanish city of Zamora on April 12, 2017. #
Cesar Manso / AFP / Getty -
A woman walks past giant egg decorations set up in the center of Moscow on April 11, 2017, days ahead of Russian Orthodox Easter celebrations. This year's Orthodox Easter falls on April 16, 2017. #
Natalia Kolesnikova / AFP / Getty -
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Members of the Spanish Legion carry a statue of the Christ of the Good Death to the Santo Domingo de Guzman Church during a Holy Week procession on April 13, 2017, in Malaga, Spain. #
Daniel Perez Garcia-Santos / Getty -
Villagers from Copaciu, Romania, light fires at the village cemetery early on April 13, 2017, three days before the celebration of Orthodox Easter. According to popular belief, fires lit on Thursday help the souls of the dead to return to visit their homes and relatives. #
Daniel Mihailescu / AFP / Getty -
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The folk saint Maximon arrives at the town hall, surrounded by worshipers in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala, on April 12, 2017. Worshipers take part in the procession of the saint venerated mostly by Mayan indigenous communities in the highlands of Western Guatemala as part of Holy Week celebrations. #
Moises Castillo / AP -
A South American cowboy known as a gaucho tries to tame a wild horse during the Criolla del Prado rodeo in Montevideo, Uruguay, on April 12, 2017. During Holy Week. the city of Montevideo organizes the rodeo to reward the best horse riders. #
Matilde Campodonico / AP -
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A woman looks at huge Easter eggs as they walk in the open air festival in the center of Kiev, Ukraine, on April 12, 2017. Some 500 traditional Ukrainian pysankas, painted Easter eggs, are presented in the center of Kiev before the celebration of Easter, the main holiday of the Orthodox church, on April 16. #
Sergei Supinsky / AFP / Getty -
An actor portrays the crucified Jesus Christ during the interactive street-theater Passion play "Il-Mixja" (The Way), one of a series of Holy Week activities in the run-up to Easter, in the grounds of Verdala Palace outside Rabat, Malta, on April 11, 2017. #
Darrin Zammit Lupi / Reuters -
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An Ethiopian Orthodox Christian woman prays during washing of the feet ceremony at Deir El Sultan monastery on top of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on April 13, 2017. #
Dan Balilty / AP
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