Lighthouse - Popular Culture and Symbolism

Popular Culture and Symbolism

Visiting and photographing lighthouses are popular hobbies as is collecting ceramic replicas. Some lighthouses are popular travel destinations in their own right, and the buildings maintained as tourist attractions. In the U.S., National Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend is celebrated on the first weekend of August, and International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend on the third weekend. Many lighthouses are open to the public and amateur radio operators communicate between them on these days.

Lighthouses are popular icons on vehicle license plates. Barnegat Lighthouse, Tuckerton Island Lighthouse, Thomas Point Shoal Light, Saybrook Breakwater Light, White Shoal Light, and Biloxi Light are so depicted.

The Disney film Pete's Dragon featured a lighthouse and the resulting Helen Reddy song Candle on the Water alludes to it. The Australian television series Round the Twist also involved a family living at Split Point Lighthouse. The long-running American soap opera Guiding Light has featured a lighthouse in many of its opening title segments, and the fictional Springfield, Illinois has a lighthouse situated near the town.

To recognize the role of lighthouse keepers in maritime safety, the U.S. Coast Guard named a class of 175-foot (53 m) coastal buoy tenders after famous U.S. lighthouse keepers. Fourteen ships in the class were built between 1996 and 2000.

Due to their function as beacons of safety, organizations choose lighthouses as a symbol. The lighthouse is the symbol of Lighthouse International, a U.S. organization for the blind. Lighthouses are often interpreted in dreams as beacons of truth or as male fertility and influence.

Lighthouses were once regarded as an archetypal public good, because ships could benefit from the light without being forced to pay. One reason the Confederacy broke off from the United States was the former's opposition to most taxpayer-funded internal improvements; yet even the Confederate States Constitution explicitly allowed public funds to be spent on lighthouses.

A widely disseminated urban legend tells of a radio conversation between a U.S. or British naval vessel and what is believed to be another ship on a collision course. The naval vessel insists the other ship change course, but the other ship continues to insist the naval vessel do so. After the captain of the naval vessel identifies himself and demands a course change, the other party responds with, "I'm a lighthouse. It's your call".

Their isolated and mysterious nature makes lighthouses a frequent setting of horror and suspense films, as well as adventure video games. Recently, a lighthouse played a pivotal role in Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, and was featured in the final shot of the film.

St. Anthony's Lighthouse at St. Anthony's Head near Falmouth, Cornwall was featured in the title sequence of the children's live action puppet television program series Fraggle Rock created by Jim Henson.

• A rarer type of lighthouse on stilts in the Hauraki Gulf of New Zealand. Mostly protected by nearby islands, Bean Rock lighthouse lights the way into the Waitemata Harbour.

• Lighthouse "El Faro", Maspalomas, Gran Canaria.

• Lighthouse "Lobito" in Lobito, Angola

• The Knarrarósviti Lighthouse is a two-staged tower, built in 1938-1939, located near the town of Stokkseyri. Iceland.

• The Vypin Lighthouse at Kochi, India. The structure (built in 1979) has an unusual cross section.