This week, the Surva Festival in the Pernik region, the oldest masquerade event in Bulgaria, was back after a three-year break due to the pandemic. The performers, known as Kukeri, danced to drive out evil spirits and celebrate the symbolic end of winter.
A colourful parade also ushered in the Chinese Lunar New Year in Paris, celebrating the Year of the Rabbit and the return of public festivities in the French capital.
In Spain, groups of men and women dressed up as cows and ranchers ran through the streets of Colmenar Viejo, for the festival of Vaquilla, to mark the winter migration of cattle.
Thousands gathered in the town of Lerwick on the Scottish island of Shetland to celebrate the Up Helly Aa fire festival, with women taking part in squads for the first time.
Thousands of supporters of the Cuban government also carried torches, this time through the streets of Havana, to honour Cuba’s national hero Jose Marti on the 170th anniversary of his birthday. Marti is revered as the symbol of the socialist revolution, led seven decades ago by Fidel Castro.
And in a Nantes tram, intrigued travellers discover French pianists Herve Billaut and Guillaume Coppola playing extracts from their repertoire four-handed, trying to keep their balance despite the movements of the train.
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