People dressed in Samurai costume and helmet march during the annual Himeji Castle Festival on August 3, 2013 in Himeji, Japan. The parade of Castle Queens is part of the traditional matsuri festival around the UNESCO world heritage Himeji Castle. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe)

Just a few hours’ drive from the Belarus capital of Minsk, many villagers still live off the land. Nearly 80% of the country’s 9.5 million citizens live in urban areas, but for the rest, being close to nature can outweigh the hardships of country life. Here: Boys play in the Stviga River on a hot summer day near the village of Pogost, Belarus, August 16, 2017. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

A man wearing a headgear walks along with his child on a street in Banda Aceh on July 25, 2023. (Photo by Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP Photo)

The Pied Piper of Hamelin, actually city tourism employee Michael Boyer, leads local children dressed as rats through a quiet street on November 19, 2012 in Hameln, Germany. The Pied Piper (in German: Der Rattenfaenger), is one of the many stories featured in the collection of fairy tales collected by the Grimm brothers, and the 200th anniversary of the first publication of the stories will take place this coming December 20th. Boyer, a U.S. citizen who has lived in Hameln for 15 years, and city children regularly perform a reenactment of the Pied Piper tale throughout the summer months. The Grimm brothers collected their stories from oral traditions in the region between Frankfurt and Bremen in the early 19th century, and the works include such global classics as Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel. (Photo by Sean Gallup)

Veterans Day is right around the corner, so it’s nice to see that one of the time-lapses making the most impact online over the past couple of days is one showing a homeless US Army veteran being given a makeover and, in some ways, a new lease on life.

Members of the Beltane Fire Society take part in Samhuinn Fire Festival on October 31, 2023 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Once celebrated from October 31 to November 1 by ancient Celts, Samhain, pronounced “SOW-in” or “SAH-win”, marked the shift from the brighter to the darker half of the year and was seen as a time when the boundary between the physical and spirit worlds was thought to weaken, influencing the development of contemporary Halloween customs. (Photo by Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian)

A woman poses next to an artwork depicting Kerch bridge on fire, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in central Kyiv, Ukraine on October 8, 2022. (Photo by Vladyslav Musiienko/Reuters)

Neon Naked Life Drawing in London, United Kingdom on August 23, 2022. Combining UV light and reactive body paints, Neon Naked brings an alternative, vibrant and psychedelic exploration to life drawing classes. (Photo by Guy Corbishley/Alamy Live News)