Photo of the Day

men holding candles as they stand outside of a tenth-century church to bless a bull before its sacrifice, Mestia, Svanetia, Georgia
September 23, 2014

Blessed Beast

Traditions endure in the Svaneti region, high in Georgia’s Caucasus Mountains. Here, a bull with candles on its horns is blessed at a tenth-century church near the town of Mestia before being sacrificed for a February feast dating from pre-Christian times.

See more pictures from the October 2014 feature story “Medieval Mountain Hideaway.”

Photograph by Aaron Huey, National Geographic

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