Stained glass windows are commonly used in Christian churches for decoration or to tell stories. Small pieces of painted glass are arranged to form patterns or pictures.
In the past, the pieces were held together by strips of lead. Many windows are donated to churches as memorials for loved ones. A narrative window has panels which relate a story. A figurative window has rows of people, such as saints. Quotations from scripture are sometimes included.
Some Jewish synagogues also have stained glass windows. However, stained glass windows in synagogues usually do not include pictures of people.
Text adapted from English Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0.