"For symbols related to spring...I have flowers growing out of a menorah. I have the fruits of Israel. I have two pomegranates with Torah shields...so that each pomegranate is a mini-Torah."

In the Orthodox Christian tradition fasting is not about deprivation, says Catherine Mandell, author of "When You Fast: Recipes for Lenten Seasons."

Watch an audio slideshow of students at Georgetown University celebrating the Hindu festival of colors.

You receive ashes on your forehead “to remember that life is short…you come from dust and will return to dust,” says Julie Bringman, director of Sunday night ministries at Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, DC.

"Pilgrimages are undertaken because people want to move beyond their normal, mundane life," says Virginia Raguin, a professor at the College of the Holy Cross. Raguin is also the curator of a traveling exhibit on pilgrimages in Buddhism, Christianity and Islam.

Many Latinos observe what they call the Day of the Dead, when it's believed the spirits of the departed return to Earth. There are different traditions for this across Latin America, and Hispanics in the U.S. are celebrating as well.

“When Muslims want to respectfully dispose of a text of the Qur’an that is no longer usable, we will burn it,” says Imam Jihad Turk, director of religious affairs at the Islamic Center of Southern California.

“When you are reciting the Quran you feel like you are talking to Allah,” says Quran reciter Sheikh Mohammad Alraee. During Ramadan he has been chanting the Quran from memory at the Islamic Center of Northern Virginia.

We visit a Virginia mosque that feeds Muslims and non-Muslims alike at its daily iftar meal to break the Ramadan fast.

“He is the maintainer, the preserver, the one who saves the earth over and over and over again, “ says Joan Cummins, curator of the Brooklyn Museum’s exhibition “Vishnu: Hinduism’s Blue-Skinned Savior.”