A man prepares to dip in the icy waters of the Ob River in Russia's Siberian city of Novosibirsk, with the air temperature at about minus 30 degrees Celsius (-22 degrees Fahrenheit), during an Orthodox Epiphany celebration, January 19. Orthodox believers mark Epiphany on January 19 by immersing themselves in icy waters regardless of the weather.

An Ultra-orthodox Jewish man holds chickens during the Kaparot ceremony in the Mea Shearim Ultra Orthodox neighborhood of Jerusalem on Sept. 13, 2010. The ritual is supposed to transfer the sins of the past year to the chicken. It is performed before the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur, the most important day in the Jewish calendar.

Orthodox nuns and worshippers hold candles as they walk along the Via Dolorosa during a procession in Jerusalem's Old City early morning August 25, 2010. More than a thousand worshippers took part in the annual procession in which an icon of the Virgin Mary is carried from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City to a church at the foot of the Mount of Olives believed by Christians to mark the tomb of the Virgin Mary.

Greek Orthodox Christians walk through Jerusalem's Old City at dawn during a candlelight procession commemorating the death of Jesus' mother, Mary, in Jerusalem, August 25, 2010.

Orthodox nuns hold candles and flowers as they take part in a procession to bring the icon of the Virgin Mary to the tomb where it is believed she is buried, through Jerusalem's Old City on Aug. 25, 2010. Every year before the Feast of the Assumption, the icon is brought from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to the tomb of the Virgin Mary to honor her Assumption.

Christian Orthodox nuns hold candles and flowers as they walk along the narrow streets of Jerusalem's Old City during a procession marking The Dormition of the Theotokos (God-bearer) which commemorates the Virgin Mary on August 25, 2010.

Theophilos III, the Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem and all Palestine, leads the annual celebrations in honor of Saint Onuphrius held in Orthodox monastery in Jableczna, Poland, June 25, 2010.