Brazil Offering for Yemanja
Faithful push a boat filled with flowers into the waters of Copacabana beach as an offering for Yemanja, goddess of the sea, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday Dec. 29, 2011. On New Year's Eve, Brazilian worshippers of Yemanja celebrate the diety, offerings flowers and launching boats, large and small, into the ocean in exchange for blessings in the new year. The belief in the goddess comes from the African Yoruban religion brought to America by West African slaves. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)