Dog Age Calculator: How Old Is Your Dog in Human Years?
From Nation, For Nation - Pulse of the Nation
Pele's Curse: The Hawaiian Goddess Punishes Thieves
All Aboard the Red Train: Your Front-Row Seat to St. Augustine’s Nights of Lights
It's that time of year again, when St. Augustine feels straight out of a storybook! That's right, Nights of Lights is back! More than two million white lights blanket the Nation’s Oldest City, turning every street, sidewalk, and rooftop into a glowing holiday wonderland.
And the best way to see it all? Aboard Ripley’s iconic Red Train!
Whether you're a longtime local or just someone who loves a good glittering spectacle, this is the tour to put at the top of your festive bucket list.
Reserve Your Row
Reservations are made by row, not by person.
That means:
-->Your row = your space.
-->Up to four guests can ride together.
-->Each row measures 68 inches long.
-->You can book multiple rows for bigger groups.
-->It’s cozy, convenient, and perfect for families, date nights, and festive friend outings.
What to Expect on the Nights of Lights Tour
From the moment the Red Train pulls out of Ripley's Believe It or Not! St. Augustine at 19 San Marco Ave, the holiday magic starts in full force!
Here’s the vibe:
-->A 30-minute ride packed with twinkling lights.
-->Complimentary magic glasses that transform every bulb into dancing holiday shapes.
-->Your favorite Christmas tunes filling the air.
-->A ride across 20 glowing blocks of historic St. Augustine.
-->Lights recognized by National Geographic as one of the Top 10 Holiday Displays in the World.
Every corner is a photo op, and every stretch of the city feels like a real-life snow globe, minus the snow. The tour runs nightly at 6 p.m. from November 16 through January 10, with a break on Christmas Day.
Rockin’ Red New Year's: Keep the Sparkle Going
Can’t make it before Christmas? No problem!
From December 31 to January 10, Ripley’s Red Train transforms into the Rockin’ Red New Year's ride, same glow, same magic, just with that “new year, new train” energy. →
From Globe, For Globe - Pulse of the Planet
Why were mothers hidden behind curtains and under cloths?
Like spirit photography and death photography, hidden mother photography was another common practice of the Victorian era that looks absolutely creepifying now.
Many mothers, hoping to have pictures taken of their children in the early 1800s, would make a guest appearance in the photographs. However, they were usually obscured or hidden with a piece of fabric strategically draped over their bodies, or sometimes just their heads. It was also common for mothers to be cropped out of the photos, standing nearby but far enough away that they wouldn’t appear in the final images.
Now Hold Still!
As these photographs ranged from looking mildly odd to extremely disturbing; it can be hard to figure out why mothers of the Victorian era wanted to be “seen,” but not seen, in images with their children.
Daguerreotypes, or the photographs of the time, required long exposure periods that could stretch from anywhere between thirty seconds and several minutes. As any parent knows, it can be hard to keep a baby motionless simply snapping a picture with your cell phone. For a solid minute of stillness, photographers were asking a lot of the tykes. So, in many cases, their mothers would have to sit for the photograph as well in order to make sure their children didn’t fidget.
The Picture-Perfect Game of Hide-And-Go Seek
But why did the mothers hide? Why not create a portrait that portrayed familial love and affection? Linda Fregni Nagler, an Italian-Swedish artist and publisher of 2013 book, The Hidden Mother, believes the trend started because parents wanted to create “an intimate bond between the child and the viewer,” thus, leaving the mother out of the equation. Another theory stems from the fact that, in the Victorian era, photographing a loved one was such a rarity. Parents wanted images of their children alone that they could use to send to family members.
Still, others wonder if this could have been part of the long tradition of erasing a woman’s work from the eyes of onlookers. Sure, some of these portraits have been found to include the occasional father, nanny, or photographer’s assistant hidden in plain sight, but the majority of the “pictured” caregivers are mothers.
In most cases, these images are of mothers appearing with their children in their laps or beside them while otherwise being clumsily concealed to look like a piece of furniture.
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Referred by ripleys.com - where the world’s most extraordinary stories are discovered and celebrated.