The joy of being there, of prayer and play, a dance in a bomb shelter, a kiss in a flood and a hug in the mud, kids rolling tires and scooting among the ruins of Gaza are among the defining images of 2025 as people found happiness despite adversity and enjoyed the simple things of life.

Images of joy, of rainbows appearing after rain in Utah, of a newly married couple kissing in a flooded church after a deadly typhoon in the Philippines, a couple hugging in the mud at a Brazilin festival, another kissing in a puddle of tomatoes during a festival in Spain. A couple dancing with joy in their wedding clothes in Istanbul, Turkey, and another practicing their ballroom dancing in a Hanoi, Vietnam Square.

Whether marking religious holidays in Senegal, VE Day in London, the election of Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, water festivals and Buddhist ceremonies in Thailand, Eid al-Fitr in the Philippines, children cooling themselves off in drainage ditches in Venezuela or being soaked with water during the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, people found joy in the profound and mundane in 2025.

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Photo editing by Courtney Dittmar and Anne-Marie Belgrave