Stunning Pictures Of Easter Celebrations Around The World (PICTURES)

From Easter bonnets, bunnies and parades, to gladiator tournament, these stunning images show the vast difference in the celebration of Easter around the world.
In Eastern Europe parades have a joyful but tasteful feel, parades of worshippers in traditional costumes, with thousands bringing candles to the continent's holiest sites.
In the US, traditional Easter bonnet hats adorned with flowers were worn by revellers in New York.
For many, the holiday was an opportunity to celebrate not just the religious aspects of the festival, but a time to indulge in local pastimes, such as Highland dancing and bagpipes in Scotland, and bull-fighting in Spain.

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  Russian priests hold a ceremony celebrating Easter in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow
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  Dressed for the occasion, a dance group from Rolling Meadows High School in Rolling Meadows, Illinois, perform on New York's Fifth Avenue as they take part in the Easter Parade
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  Worshippers join together for a sunrise service at the No Fences Cowboy Church in Falkville, Alabama
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  Fireworks explode an effigy of Judas in the Santa Rosa Xochiac area of Mexico City. The Burning of Judas is an Easter-time ritual in Santa Rosa Xochiac, where neighborhood groups build representations of Judas which are then destroyed in blazes of fireworks and small explosives.
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  Women sit beside an effigy of Judas, partially wired with fireworks and explosives, in the Santa Rosa Xochiac area of Mexico City
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  Spanish bullfighter Manuel Escribano is tossed by a bull after trying to receive it performing on his knees ('a porta gayola') during a bullfight on the occasion of Easter Sunday at La Maestranza bullring in Seville, Andalusia, southern Spain,
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  First Presbyterian Church's worship leaders and choir cross arrive from the outfield, crossing second base, as the processional is bagpipe in for Easter service at New Bridge Bank Park on Sunday, April 20, 2014, in Greensboro, NC. First Presbyterian Church moved their Easter Sunday service to the baseball park to accommodate the congregation while the church's sanctuary is being renovated.
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  An oak wheel stuffed with straw is set on fire and rolled down a hill to celebrate the Easter Wheel (Osterraeder) tradition in Luedge, Germany, 20 April 2014. Originally a custom of a sun cult by which the awaking spring was welcomed, the rolling of burning wheels has taken place on Easter Sunday for centuries. The custom is in the finals for the German application for the inclusion of cultural customs in the Unesco Intangible cultural heritage list.
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  Six-year-old Spanish girl Laura Brogeras, dressed as an angel, performs during the traditional event 'Bajada del Angel' ('Descent of the Angel') on Easter Sunday in Aranda de Duero, Burgos province, Castile and Leon region, Spain, 20 April 2014. The 'angel' removes a black cape from an icon of Virgin Mary, who is symbolically dressing the cloak in mourning for Jesus Christ, to represent the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The tradition dates back to the medieval ages.
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  A large crowd is seen in St. Peter's Square from the Bernini colonnade towards Via della Conciliazione avenue, top, during Pope Francis' Easter Mass, at the the Vatican, Sunday, April 20, 2014. Even before Mass began, a crowd of more than 100,000 was overflowing from the cobblestoned square, and many more Romans, tourists and pilgrims were still streaming in for the pontiff's tradition Easter greeting
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  Rockets fly over the bell towel of Panagia Erithiani church, during Greek Orthodox Easter celebrations on the eastern Aegean island of Chios
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  A man swims with his pet puppy in the polluted waters of Manila's bay, just outside the U.S. Embassy, in the Philippines as he and others celebrate Easter Sunday, April 20, 2014. Despite a city-imposed swimming ban, many poor Filipinos swam along the bay to cool themselves from the summer's sweltering heat.
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  A man is thrown in the air while swimming in the polluted waters of Manila's bay, just outside the U.S. Embassy, in the Philippines as he and others celebrate Easter Sunday, April 20, 2014. Despite a city-imposed swimming ban, many poor Filipinos swam along the bay to cool themselves from the summer's sweltering heat.
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  Christian Orthodox worshippers hold up candles lit from the 'Holy Fire' as thousands gather in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's old city
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  Local residents of the region wearing traditional costumes walk through a meadow to get blessing for man and beast at the St. George church, in Traunstein, southern Germany
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  An Orthodox priest blesses a woman during the Easter celebration, at a church in Donetsk, Ukraine, Saturday, April 19, 2014. Pro-Russian insurgents defiantly refused Friday to surrender their weapons or give up government buildings in eastern Ukraine, despite a diplomatic accord reached in Geneva and overtures from the government in Kiev.
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  Men wearing 'gladiator' costume as people gather at the Circus Maximus to mark the capital city Rome's 2767th birthday on 21 April, which this year falls on Easter Monday, a public holiday in Italy.
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  A participant displays his outfit during the annual Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue in New York on April 20, 2014. The annual parade has been a New York tradition since the late 1880s, during which participants gather, donning all mode of spring finery and hat, from wacky to traditional. AFP PHOTO/Emmanuel Dunand (Photo credit should read EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)
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  Haitian people participate in a voodoo Easter ceremony on April 19, 2014 in Souvenance, a suburb of Gonaives, 171km north of Port-au-Prince. AFP PHOTO/Hector RETAMAL (Photo credit should read HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images)