Massive, colorful ice sculptures light up the night in the frigid northern city of Harbin, China.
Authorities in Allahabad, India, are expecting approximately 100 million visitors over the 48-day Ardh Kumbh Mela festival starting on January 15, 2019, and 22 temporary pontoon bridges are being built to handle the traffic.
The 185th Oktoberfest beer festival opened in Munich this weekend, and organizers are expecting more than 6 million visitors over the next two weeks.
A spectacular festival of handheld fireworks that dates back more than 350 years
In parts of Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, and Russia, an ancient pagan rite combined with a traditional Orthodox feast to become Ivan Kupala Night, a festival celebrating the summer solstice.
Last weekend, the first part of the 2018 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival took place in Indio, California, headlined by Beyoncé.
Church services, processions of hooded penitents, Easter egg hunts, Catholic passion plays, and more.
Images of Carnival season 2018, already underway, with celebrations in Brazil, Portugal, Hungary, Bolivia, Haiti, Spain, Italy, and more.
In the past couple of days, festivals were held in two villages separated by language, culture, religion, and great distance, but both centered on the use of fire as a method of purification and blessing.
Each year, participants in the Burning Man Festival travel to the playa of Nevada’s Black Rock Desert to form a temporary city—a self-reliant community populated by performers, artists, free spirits, and more.
Earlier today, in the Spanish Mediterranean town of Bunol, around 22,000 people gathered to throw 150 tons of ripe tomatoes at each other.
This weekend, the first part of the 2017 Coachella Valley Music and Art Festival took place in Indio, California.
Carnival season is under way across Europe and the Americas.
A collection of recent images from different autumn and winter festivals, observations, and celebrations around the world, where illumination at night is a big part of the fun.
Every year in Spain, a Catalan tradition of building Castells—human towers reaching up to 10 stories—takes place.
Every year, participants in the Burning Man Festival descend on the playa of Nevada’s Black Rock Desert to form a temporary city—a self-reliant community populated by performers, artists, free spirits, and more.
Every year, tens of thousands of pilgrims gather in Sinakara Valley, high in the Peruvian Andes, to celebrate Qoyllur Rit’i, or the Snow Star Festival.
Every year from April 13 to 15, the Songkran festival, marking the traditional Thai New Year, takes place across Thailand.
Recent images of carnivals around the world, including images from Spain, Brazil, Italy, Germany, Lithuania, Bolivia, and more.
Every January, on Saint Sebastian Day, the streets of Piornal, Spain, fill with residents armed with turnips, seeking to punish the Jarramplas. The Jarramplas is a devil-like character portrayed by a man wearing a costume made from colorful strips of fabric, a frightening mask, and body armor underneath.
Every year, in northeast China's Heilongjiang province, the city of Harbin hosts an Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival, featuring massive ice and snow sculptures.
In a tradition that dates back more than 200 years, the town of Ibi, Spain, celebrates the festival of Els Enfarinats on December 28th with a mock battle taking place outside the town hall.
While Saint Nicholas may bring gifts to good boys and girls, ancient folklore in Europe's Alpine region also tells of Krampus, a frightening beast-like creature who emerges during the Yule season, looking for naughty children to punish in horrible ways—or possibly to drag back to his lair in a sack.
Last week, an estimated 70,000 people came to Burning Man 2015, “Carnival of Mirrors,” from all over the world to dance, express themselves, and take in the spectacle.
A collection of winning and honored images from this year’s nature-photo competition
A collection of amazing recent images made with the Hubble Space Telescope
Mourners of Pope Francis gathered at the Vatican, scenes from the the second weekend of Coachella 2025, a humanoid-robot half-marathon in China, and much more
Images of the people, animals, and landscapes of the Earth’s arctic and subarctic regions, photographed by Olivier Morin