Rites Around the World

During this time, women are forbidden to touch men or even to enter the courtyard of their own homes. They are barred from consuming milk, yogurt, butter, meat, and other nutritious foods, for fear they will forever mar those goods. The women must survive on a diet of dry foods, salt, and rice. They cannot use warm blankets, and are allowed only a small rug; most commonly, this is made of jute (also known as burlap). They are also restricted from going to school or performing their daily functions like taking a bath, forced to stay in the conditions of the shed.

This system comes from the superstition of impurity during the menstruation period. In this superstitious logic, if a menstruating woman touches a tree it will never again bear fruit; if she consumes milk the cow will not give anymore milk; if she reads a book about Saraswati, the goddess of education, she will become angry; if she touches a man, he will be ill.

Chhaupadi was outlawed by the Supreme Court of Nepal in 2005, but the tradition has been slow to change.

The event is led by Indian nationals as they mark Holi, a Hindu spring festival also known as festival of colors, and sometimes festival of love.

The Jewish holy day of Tisha B'Av, when Jews mourn the destruction of the biblical temples is marked Sunday.

The Mitzvah tantz, in which family members and honored rabbis are invited to dance in front of the bride, often holding a gartel, and then dancing with the groom.

Tashlich, which means 'to cast away' in Hebrew, is the practice by which Jews go to a large flowing body of water and symbolically 'throw away' their sins by throwing a piece of bread, or similar food, into the water before the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, which start on Friday.

The Jewish holiday of Purim celebrates the Jews' salvation from genocide in ancient Persia, as recounted in the Scroll of Esther.

Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Hager was 95.

The bride enters to the men section to fulfill the Mitzvah tantz, in which family members and honored rabbis are invited to dance in front of the bride, often holding a gartel, and then dancing with the groom.

Afghanistan uses the Persian calendar which runs from the vernal equinox. The calendar takes as its start date the time when the Prophet Mohammad moved from Mecca to Medina in 621 AD. The current Persian year is 1393.

Jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) called on the Turkish government on Friday to create a legal framework for their peace talks, whose fate is looking increasingly uncertain a year after he called a ceasefire by his fighters. Tens of thousands gathered in Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast, for the Kurdish new year celebrations of Newroz, where they listened to a statement written by Ocalan in his island jail of Imrali near Istanbul.

The Melasti ritual is held annually ahead of the Nyepi Day of Silence, a ceremony intended to cleanse and purify the souls of the Balinese Hindu participants. Nyepi is a Hindu celebration observed every new year according to the Balinese calendar. The national holiday is one of self-reflection and meditation and activities such as working, watching television or travelling are restricted between the hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

The Samaritan religion descended from the ancient Israelite tribes of Menashe and Efraim and the community numbers today less than 700 people, half of who live on Mount Grizim in the West Bank and the other half in Holon, next to Tel Aviv, Israel. Samaritans recite prayers in ancient Hebrew using a Torah scoll.

Thousands gathered on Tuesday to celebrate the wedding between Safrin and Rokeach, the granddaughter of the spiritual leader of the Belz Hasidim, which is one of the largest Hasidic movements in the world.

The holiday, which is a mix of pagan and Christian traditions, is celebrated annually by residents of the Eastern Georgian mountains, who bring sheep to one place to be killed in a social situation.