Agnostic buyers snap them up for their golden robes, their peacock wings, their haloes raying glittery light, their instruments that hum with the music of the spheres.

ECONOMIST: Angels

Dressed in simple, white vestments rather than the golden robes and ornate miter that his predecessor donned at his inauguration eight years ago the pope presided over a shortened ceremony installing him as leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics.

WSJ: Pope Celebrates Inaugural Mass

The final parade begins with deafening thunderclaps and the air is thick with smoke as group after group of Thais in robes hoist golden shrines into the air covered in more fireworks than you will see on New Year's Eve, anywhere.

BBC: Phuket's Vegetarian Festival