Robert Pratta / Reuters

View of Les Chrysalides de Saint-Jean installation by artist Damien Fontaine at the Saint-Jean Cathedral during the rehearsal for the "Festival of Lights" in central Lyon late on the night of Dec. 5. 

Robert Pratta / Reuters

View of Les Chrysalides de Saint-Jean installation by artist Damien Fontaine at the Saint-Jean Cathedral during a rehearsal for the "Festival of Lights" in central Lyon, Dec. 5.

Robert Pratta / Reuters

Four images of Les Chrysalides de Saint-Jean installation by artist Damien Fontaine at the Saint-Jean Cathedral during a rehearsal on Dec. 5.

Slideshow: Holiday season lights up

Sean Gallup / Getty Images

As temperatures drop and snow begins to fall, take a look at beautiful light displays from around the globe.

Launch slideshow

The Festival of Lights, with designers from all over the world, is one of Lyon’s most famous festivals and will run from Dec. 6 to Dec. 9. The annual festival takes over buildings, squares, rivers and hills of the city with more than 70 performances and light installations and attracts over four million visitors to the city of Lyon, France.

2012 Festival of Lights website

Artist Damien Fontaine (site in French)

Festival of Lights website 2011

Jeff Pachoud / AFP - Getty Images

Youths carry pots of chrysanthemums into a cemetery in the French city of Lyon on October 31, 2012, the eve of All Saints' Day. In France, people place chrysanthemums on graves to mark All Saints' Day on November 1.

Jeff Pachoud / AFP - Getty Images

A woman stands in front of a tombstone in a cemetery in Lyon on the eve of All Saints' Day.

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Guillaume Horcajuelo / EPA

Pilgrims carry statues of Saint Mary Salome and Saint Mary Jacobe during a procession on a beach of Saintes-Maries-de-la-mer, southwestern France.

Guillaume Horcajuelo / EPA

A gypsy woman touches a decorated display case containing the relics of Saint Mary Salome and Saint Mary Jacobe.

Guillaume Horcajuelo / EPA

A pilgrim carries a flag of the 'Saintes Maries' Brotherhood.

The European Pressphoto Agency reports — Every October, pilgrims from all over Europe gather in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, France, to honor the village's patron saints.  

According to Christian texts, Mary Jacobe (the sister of Mary, mother of Jesus) and Mary Salome (the mother of the Apostles James and John) were expelled from Jerusalem with Mary Magdalene and many others around the year A.D. 40. After being shipped off on a boat without sails or oars, they reached France's Camargue coast. The Breviary of the Aix-en-Provence Diocese says that the two women remained on the shore and converted the local people and Romans occupying the region.

As part of the annual pilgrimage, worshipers pay their respects to the pair during a mass to their relics, contained in a decorated display case. Then guardians on horseback, priests, pilgrims and locals wearing traditional attire take part in a procession through the village carrying statues of Saint Mary Salome and Saint Mary Jacobe. Their march takes them to the sea, where the two statues are blessed. 

Editor's note: These pictures were taken on October 21-22, 2012 and made available to NBC News today.

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Laurent Dard / AFP - Getty Images

The Gave de Pau, the river passing through Lourdes, France, floods parts of the city in front of the Basilica, on Oct. 20. It has been raining in Lourdes since Oct. 18, and hundreds of pilgrims were evacuated today from hotels as the grotto is under nearly five feet of water.

Laurent Dard / AFP - Getty Images

Laurent Dard / AFP - Getty Images

Charles Platiau / Reuters

A craftsman covers the cope of a bell mold made from clay, horse-dung and horse-hair, as he works to produce bronze bells ordered at the French foundry Cornille Havard in Villedieu-les-Poeles in Normandy on Oct. 17.

Charles Platiau / Reuters

Stephane Mouton cleans and inspects the bronze bell 'Maurice' after removing the mold at the French bell foundry Cornille Havard.

Charles Platiau / Reuters

Craftsman Stephane Mouton cleans and inspects the bronze bell 'Maurice' after removing the mold at the French bell foundry Cornille Havard.

Charles Platiau / Reuters

Craftsman Stephane Mouton looks at 'Maurice', a bronze bell which is lifted from the pit at the French bell foundry Cornille Havard.

Charles Platiau / Reuters

Bronze bells are seen in the courtyard of the French bell foundry Cornille Havard in Villedieu-les-Poeles in Normandy.

French bell foundry Cornille Havard in Villedieu-les-Poeles in Normandy was chosen to design and cast eight replacement bronze bells for the north tower of Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral, set to be finished in time to ring for the 850th anniversary of the cathedral next year.

The new bells will have the same weight and diameter as the ones from the 18th-century that were melted down and turned into cannons during the French Revolution. They will be designed to recreate the centuries old sound by using the same medieval forging methods.

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Vincent Kessler / Reuters

A coloured honeycomb from a beehive is seen in Ribeauville near Colmar Eastern France, on Oct. 5. Bees at a cluster of bee hives in northeastern France have been producing honey in mysterious shades of blue and green, alarming their keepers who now believe residue from containers of M&M's candy processed at a nearby biogas plant is the cause. Since August, beekeepers around the town of Ribeauville in the region of Alsace have seen bees returning to their hives carrying unidentified colourful substances that have turned their honey unnatural shades.

Vincent Kessler / Reuters

French apiarist Andre Frieh holds a sample green colored honey at his home in Ribeauville near Colmar Eastern France, on Oct. 5.

Reuters -- Bees at a cluster of apiaries in northeastern France have been producing honey in mysterious shades of blue and green, alarming their keepers who now believe residue from containers of M&M's candy processed at a nearby biogas plant is the cause.

Since August, beekeepers around the town of Ribeauville in the region of Alsace have seen bees returning to their hives carrying unidentified colorful substances that have turned their honey unnatural shades.

Mystified, the beekeepers embarked on an investigation and discovered that a biogas plant 4 km (2.5 miles) away has been processing waste from a Mars plant producing M&M's, bite-sized candies in bright red, blue, green, yellow and brown shells. Asked about the issue, Mars had no immediate comment.

The unsellable honey is a new headache for around a dozen affected beekeepers already dealing with high bee mortality rates and dwindling honey supplies following a harsh winter, said Alain Frieh, president of the apiculturists' union.

Agrivalor, the company operating the biogas plant, said it had tried to address the problem after being notified of it by the beekeepers.

Read the full story.

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Vincent Kessler / Reuters

The village of Ribeauville is seen near Colmar Eastern France, on Oct. 5.

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