Faith, sport and festival: the month in religion

At a newly founded church in Mexico dedicated to Diego Maradona, a replica of his famed No. 10 jersey and other memorabilia adorned an altar honoring the late Argentine soccer legend who died in November. (Image: AP)

An ocean away in Madrid, a bullfighter clad in an elaborately embroidered “traje de luces,” or suit of lights, held hands with a young girl in prayer inside a chapel before performing at the city’s storied Las Ventas arena. (Image: AP)

A number of images captured by AP photographers around the world in July highlighted a seemingly unlikely interplay between the world of faith and the more secular, recreational realm of sports. (Image: AP)

That included the quadrennial crown jewel of athletic competition — the Summer Olympics, held this year in Tokyo. A member of the Iranian delegation paraded during opening ceremonies in a radiant teal head covering typical of those worn for religious reasons by many Muslim women around the world. (Image: AP)

And sometimes it came with a more whimsical tone: In Miami, fans of baseball's San Diego Padres donned brown friars’ robes and bald-domed tonsure wigs at the ballpark as they clapped and clasped hands in prayer during the team’s game against the Marlins. (Image: AP)

July was also a month of holy festivals and ceremonies for diverse faith traditions across the planet. (Image: AP)

For a second year, the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, was dramatically curtailed due to the pandemic, but people did what they could to make the most of it: Workers in hygienic face masks set up a tent camp to accommodate pilgrims in the nearby city of Mina; female police officers newly deployed to the force stood alert and in uniform as worshippers trickled past the cube-shaped Kaaba building at the Grand Mosque; and Muslims prayed in the shade of umbrellas on the rocky Mountain of Mercy outside Mecca. (Image: AP)

Coming at the end of the hajj, the holiday of Eid al-Adha or “Feast of Sacrifice” was celebrated by Muslims from Tel Aviv, Israel, where Palestinians enjoyed a dip in the Mediterranean Sea, to Dakar, Senegal, where a boy strolled coolly through the sand wearing sunglasses and carrying his prayer rug after attending services at a mosque. (Image: AP)

In India, a Hindu devotee grimaced from a ritual cheek-piercing with a metal rod during an annual pilgrimage to the temple of the goddess Sheetla Mata in the northern city of Jammu. (Image: AP)

While well to the south in Hyderabad, a worshipper wore brightly colored face paint for the month long Bonalu festival dedicated to Kali, goddess of destruction. (Image: AP)

And in Jerusalem, ultra-Orthodox Jewish men observed the fast day of Tisha B’Av, commemorating the destruction of ancient temples, by offering prayers at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray in the Old City. (Image: AP)

A Muslim pilgrim couple prays on the rocky hill known as the Mountain of Mercy on the Plain of Arafat during the annual hajj pilgrimage, near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, July 19. The coronavirus has taken its toll on the hajj for a second year running. What once drew some 2.5 million Muslims from all walks of life from across the globe, the hajj pilgrimage is now almost unrecognizable in scale. (Image: AP)

A lit lamp pole stands outside the Agostino Gemelli hospital where Pope Francis was hospitalized for intestinal surgery in Rome, July 8. The Vatican's daily update said Francis was continuing to eat and move around unassisted, and had even sent his greetings to young cancer patients at Rome's Gemelli hospital. (Image: AP)

Workers set up accommodations for pilgrims at a tent camp in Mina, near the Muslim holy city of Mecca, ahead of the upcoming annual hajj pilgrimage, July 12. The pilgrimage to Mecca required once in a lifetime of every Muslim who can afford it and is physically able to make it, used to draw more than 2 million people. But for a second straight year it has been curtailed due to the coronavirus with only vaccinated people in Saudi Arabia able to participate. (Image: AP)