One wonders why this thread was started other then to somehow denigrate practices from another group of people.
The link is to "The Week in Pictures" for Feb 3-10. Considering that others were of: a poor child crying in the remains of her home in Indonesia; the coach of the New England Patriots Football team; a tug on the Hudson River; a model on a runway; a soldiers funeral with a grieving mother and some soldiers in Iraq as well as some from various Mardi Gras celebrations, one wonders why someone would thank God for not seeing them all.
As to the photo linked to it could just be what it says it is in the caption: "Members of the traditional "Bloco da Lama" (Block of the Mud) whoop it up on Jabaquara Beach in Paraty, 263 kilometers from Reo De Janeiro, Brazil on Feb. 5. The sulphurous mud is supposed to make skin healthy and beautiful. During Canival, people dress ujp as cavemen, cover themselves with mud and parade through the streets"
Other cultures should not be judged by one's own nor should assumptions be made. Would anyone like someone from another country interpreting their customs in a lurid light because the other person doesn't understand what is happening.
This could be like folks who are in "Polar Bear Clubs" and swim in the middle of winter or any other group custom.
Not everything that has a skull is "demonic". The painter Charles M. Russell used a sketch of a bison skull as his mark along with his signature.
And as for the last remark about the WCC, what has that to do with anything involving the photo? It seems, pardon me, gratuitous against others.
Meaning no disrespect to anyone, including the Brazilians in the pictures
Ebor