Merry Cryptokubrology Christmas

Did Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) make a Christmas film?

Students of Kubrick clearly agree that he did. The one movie generally considered to be his "Christmas masterpiece" is Eyes Wide Shut. 

Film critic Roger Ebert wrote on July 19, 1999, that the Eyes Wide Shut was shoot "in a grainy high-contrast style, using lots of back-lighting, underlighting and strong primary colors, setting the film at Christmas to take advantage of the holiday lights, he makes it all a little garish, like an urban sideshow."

On March 7, 1999, six days after screening a final cut of Eyes Wide Shut for his family and the stars, Kubrick died in his sleep at the age of 70, after suffering a massive heart attack.

If Eyes Wide Shut is about the Illuminati, it makes sense that Kubrick would utilize Christmas lights to "illuminate" his film.

Please view Max Malone's "The Hidden Messages in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut." Also see "Eyes Wide Shut - a steganalysis." (See below.)

Mainstream analysts have tried to wrestle with the Christmas setting of Eyes Wide Shut.

In addition to relocating the story from Vienna in the 1900s to New York City in the 1990s, Kubrick changed the time-frame of Schnitzler's story from Mardi Gras to Christmas. One critic believed Kubrick did this because of the rejuvenating symbolism of Christmas. Others have noted that Christmas lights allow Kubrick to employ some of his distinct methods of shooting including using source location lighting, as he did in Barry Lyndon. The New York Times noted that the film "gives an otherworldly radiance and personality to Christmas lights", and critic Randy Rasmussen noted that "colorful Christmas lights ... illuminate almost every location in the film." Harper's film critic, Lee Siegel, believes the film's recurring motif is the Christmas tree, because it symbolizes the way that "Compared with the everyday reality of sex and emotion, our fantasies of gratification are, yes, pompous and solemn in the extreme ... For desire is like Christmas: it always promises more than it delivers." Author Tim Kreider noted that the "Satanic" mansion-party at Somerton is the only set in the film without a Christmas tree, stating "Almost every set is suffused with the dreamlike, hazy glow of colored lights and tinsel ... Eyes Wide Shut, though it was released in summer, was the Christmas movie of 1999." Noting that Kubrick has shown viewers the dark side of Christmas consumerism, Louise Kaplan stated that the film illustrates ways that the "material reality of money" is shown replacing the spiritual values of Christmas, charity and compassion. While virtually every scene has a Christmas tree, there is "no Christmas music or cheery Christmas spirit." Critic Alonso Duralde, in his book Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas, categorized the film as a "Christmas movie for grownups" (as he also did with Bergman's Fanny and Alexander and The Lion in Winter), arguing that "Christmas weaves its way through the film from start to finish". Source.

But, wait, there may be more...

In 2012, Tony Sokol ("Den of Geek) reviewed Kubrick's The Shining (1980), and began by frankly stating "Yes, it's a Christmas movie."

Sokol re-imagined The Shining as a Christmas parable. It makes sense in various examples he gave, such as, "The head cook at the hotel, Dick Hallorann, notices that Danny shines like the Star of Bethlehem."

And, "Dick Hallorran, representative of the Zoroastrian Magi, who became extinct after the rise of Christianity, sees the call of Danny’s shining star and cuts his holiday vacation short just in time to be dispatched by Jack, who hobbles off to spread his cheer with his son in the massive property’s hedge maze. The Scroogey father dawdles too long in the snow and becomes a Jack Frost lawn ornament."

Someone reads the synchromystic musings here. 

"Just call me Roob" penned her thoughts in "Riding Stanley Kubrick."

She wrote (3/20/2017): 

Feeling a little poorly on Saturday evening, I went to bed and watched the movie, Passengers....One thing, though, that I did find interesting was the inclusion of The Shining’s Gold Room.
I supposed it was done on purpose, as an homage to Stanley Kubrick, a fact that was confirmed yesterday when I happened across a post on the subject at Twilight Language. The post also brings up the odd coincidence that Michael Sheen’s (Arthur, the android bartender on the Avalon) father earns a living as a looky-likey for Jack Nicholson.

The blog writer quoted me from a TL passage:

Via Twitter, I bemoaned to Alex Fulton at Crypto-Kubrology Twitter that "modern Cryptokubrology is frustrating when Shining scenes are in new films w/out sync-reasoning."
To which Fulton replied that "modern films w/ 237s inserted… hard not to assume the filmmakers just being clever. Pre-Shining 237s are where it gets weird."

You can see this post-Kubrick/Shining mentioning in Stand By Me, a 1986 film based on a Stephen King story, as was The Shining (1980).  In Stand By Me there is a scene when the boys' total change adds up to $2.37.

"Just call me Roob" mentions one older Christmas movie which includes a "237," namely The Shop Around the Corner (1940). ("Roob" made some other synchrocinematic connections, and you can read her stream of consciousness links here.)

Many of us have seen this Cryptokubrology sync to The Shining, coming before The Shining, previously.

I was reminded of The Shop Around the Corner on Christmas Eve 2017, when TCM broadcast In the Good Old Summertime, which, believe it or not, is a Christmas movie.

Definitely a Christmas movie.

The Shop Around the Corner is a 1940 American romantic comedy film produced and directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart and Frank Morgan. The screenplay was written by Samson Raphaelson based on the 1937 Hungarian play Parfumerie by Miklós László. Eschewing regional politics in the years leading up to World War II, the film is about two employees at a leathergoods shop in Budapest who can barely stand each other, not realizing they're falling in love as anonymous correspondents through their letters, as noted in Wikipedia.

Fans of Cryptokubrology realize what postal mailbox number is the focus of The Shop Around the Corner.  Of course, it is P. O. Box 237.

Now, as to the film that played on cable on December 24th...

In the Good Old Summertime is a 1949 Technicolor musical film directed by Robert Z. Leonard. It stars Judy Garland, Van Johnson and S.Z. Sakall. The film is a musical adaptation of the 1940 film, The Shop Around the Corner.

Veronica Fisher (Judy Garland) enters Oberkugen's music shop, looking for work. Although Otto Oberkugen (S. Z. Sakall) is reluctant to take on more staff, she wins a job by persuading a wealthy matron, through her singing and musical expertise, to buy a harp at almost $25 over Oberkugen's list price. Neither she nor Andrew Larkin (Van Johnson), the shop's senior salesman, suspects that they are each other's anonymous pen pal. They bicker constantly at work although becoming increasingly attracted to each other.

And what P.O. Box is mentioned in In the Good Old Summertime? Box 237!

Andrew Delby Larkin (Van Johnson): Oh, Veronica, I love you so! Won't you open box 237 and take me out of my envelope? 
Veronica Fisher (Judy Garland): Box 23- Box 237! You mean... You?

<><><>

These two movies - The Shop Around the Corner and In the Good Old Summertime - have another sync that ties to Eyes Wide Shut. In Max Malone's analysis (noted above), Eyes Wide Shut is seen as having many ties to The Wizard of Oz and Through The Looking Glass. This is evidenced by the many mirrors and the Rainbow shop in Eyes Wide Shut.

Here's where it begins to get synchrocinematically intriguing.

Frank Morgan played Professor Marvel, The Wizard, Doorman, Cabbie and Guard in The Wizard of Oz (1940), and then showed up as Mr. Hugo Matuschek in The Shop Around the Corner (1949).

Judy Garland played Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939) and then as Veronica Fisher ten years later in In the Good Old Summertime (1949).

Are we over the rainbow?

A scene from Eyes Wide Shut

So what is the Rainbow? And how does it relate to The Shining? For one the Rainbow's proprietor Milich resembles Jack Nicholson, with a similar hairline and expressive acting style. He’s even wearing a bathrobe and plaid flannel shirt. Perhaps Milich is an analog to Jack after 20 years or so as entertainment director of the Overlook Hotel. Like the Overlook, the Rainbow teleports in and out of reality, seems to grow in size once entered, and offers impossible vistas. The Rainbow is also a site of sexual depravity, with Milich’s daughter being the pedophiles’ target much like Danny. The Rainbow, like a hotel, is also a rental business. For a price, one can temporarily access realities greater than afforded one’s basic financial situation. For Cruise, the Rainbow’s costume rental allows him, if only for a moment, into the secret lair of the elite, just like Jack’s five-month tenure at the Overlook allows him to act like king of the mountain in a grand, fantastical palace. At the end of the night, Milich absolves Cruise of his debt by tearing up his receipt, but what has been seen cannot be unseen, as his missing mask will surely remind him when uncovered. Source.

Other Cryptokubrology Essays

Flight 237, Obama's 237, and Room 237

Beyond Room 237: Pitch Perfect 237 and 9/11

IKEA Even Set The Clock At 2:37

More 237: Scorpion and The Shining

Kubrick Red: Redrum, Redrug and More

Eyes Wide Furry

Frame 237 to Room 237, from The Shining to Westworld

Cryptokubrology: Two Jacks

Birdman Copycats The Shining: Getting the Room 237 Treatment

Cryptokubrology: Frames 237s

Synchromystic June 24th Death: Loren James

Scaramuccia Keeps Our Eyes Wide Shut

Tinsel & Terror: Synchromystic Geography

Point of view is important. As some people have noted, the truck used to plow into a crowd at Berlin's Christmas Market, seen at a different angle, is a monolith. Look for more in the next week.

The Season of Christmas 2016 will be one targeted by those who wish to do others harm.

Viewing the world synchromystically ‎concerns the drawing of connections in modern culture (movies, music lyrics, historical happenings and esoteric knowledge); and finding connections that could be issuing from the "collective unconscious mind"; and finding connections between occult knowledge (i.e. esoteric fraternities, cults and secret rituals), forteana, politics and mass media.

As readers of various artisans of synchromysticism, as well as of this blog, you are all familiar with the connecting of the dots that can take detours and side treks leading to a variety of surprising links.

During the remarkable period that occurred right before 2016's Winter Solstice, terrorist attacks tied to intriguing location spotlighted synchromystic geography.

Here are the moments, with an attempt to note the specific, intriguing "places" that were interwoven with these events.

1. Yemen: Home of Nasser al-Anbouri

On Sunday morning, December 18, 2016, a suicide bomber disguised as a disabled man killed 52 people and injured over 80 others, in Aden, Yemen. The attack near a military base targeted a gathering of Yemeni security officers, and the majority of those killed were Yemeni soldiers who were waiting to receive their salaries. The bombing happened outside the home of Nasser al-Anbouri, the commander of the Special Security Forces, near a military base in Aden. The Islamic State claimed responsibility.


2. Jordan: Karak Crusader Castle

Seven Jordanian security officers, a Canadian tourist and two Jordanian civilians were killed by gunmen in the southern city of Karak on Sunday, December 18, 2016. After a couple of shooting incidents, at a home and an attack on a police station, police were told the gunmen were hiding inside the Karak Crusader castle, a prominent tourist attraction on a hilltop. Several Canadian news outlets identified the tourist as Linda Vatcher, a retired teacher from Newfoundland. At the time of the attack, she was visiting her son David or Chris (as he has been variously identified), who works in the region. He is among the injured. Four of the attackers were also killed.

On Tuesday, December 20, 2016, at Karak, Jordan again, four Jordanian security personnel were killed in fresh clashes with armed men near the central town of Karak.

Kerak Castle is a large Crusader castle located in al-Karak, Jordan. It is one of the largest crusader castles in the Levant. Construction of the castle began in the 1140s, under Pagan, Fulk, King of Jerusalem. The Crusaders called it Crac des Moabites or "Karak in Moab" referred to in history books.

The New York Times headlined this time, "Ankara, Berlin, Zurich: A Day of Terror."

3. Turkey: Ankara Exhibition Hall

On 19 December 2016, at 20:15, Russia's Turkey ambassador Andrei Karlov was shot and fatally wounded by Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş, a 22-year-old off-duty Turkish police officer, at an art exhibition in Ankara, Turkey. The attacker, who was dressed in a suit and tie, opened fire at Karlov at point-blank range while the ambassador was delivering his speech in front of journalists, fatally wounding the ambassador and injuring several others. The attacker gained access to the gallery after he showed his police ID to security guards.

A video of the attack showed the assassin crying out: "Don't forget Aleppo, don't forget Syria!" and "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) while holding a gun in one hand and waving the other in the air in the tawhid salute. The assailant shouted in Arabic and Turkish. Altıntaş was subsequently shot by Turkish security forces. Both were rushed to hospital, but they died from their injuries.

The city of Ankara announced that the exhibition hall where Karlov was assassinated would be named after Andrei Karlov.

4. Switzerland: Zurich Islamic Center

At approximately 5:30 PM on 19 December 2016, a man entered an Islamic center near the main train station in Zürich and began shooting, apparently at random. The center, which is primarily used by refugees from Somalia and Eritrea, was hosting prayer services at the time. Approximately 10 people were present at the shooting. Three people were wounded in the attack, two seriously, though all are expected to survive. The victims are two Somali nationals, age 30 and 35, and a Swiss citizen age 56. One witness reported hearing the shooter yell "Raus aus unserem Land [Get out of our country]" during the attack, though police could not confirm this.

After the shooting, the suspect (a 24-year-old Swiss citizen of Ghanian descent living in Uster) fled the area on foot and a police manhunt was started to locate and capture him. Police brought in dog tracking teams to attempt to locate the suspect, and alerted the public to be wary. It was subsequently discovered that the suspect apparently took his own life with a self-inflicted gunshot. His body was found a few hours after the shooting under the Gessner Bridge on the river Sihl approximately 300 metres (980 ft) from the Islamic center shooting site. (The first written reference to the name Sihl dates to 1018, in the form Sylaha. The name may be of Old European or Celtic origin: *Sîla ("quiet watercourse," from a root *sîl = "to trickle, wet") > Romance Sila with the addition of the Old High German element aha "flowing water".)

At approximately 9 AM on 18 December 2016, a dead stabbing victim was discovered on a playground in the Schwamendingen district of Zürich. The victim was a 25-year-old Swiss citizen of Chilean origin whose name has been withheld. The police identified a suspect in the murder based on DNA evidence at the scene and began searching for the assailant. The suspect's DNA was in a police database due to an arrest seven years prior for stealing a bicycle, and he was known to be a former friend of the murder victim.

5. Germany: Berlin Christmas Market/Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church

A terrorist attack on 19 December 2016, at 20:02 local time, during which a truck was driven into the Christmas market next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church at Breitscheidplatz in Berlin, left 12 people dead and 56 others injured. One of the victims was the truck's original driver, Łukasz Urban, who was found shot dead in the passenger seat. A suspect was arrested and later released due to lack of evidence. Another person, suspected to be the actual perpetrator, was killed four days later during a shootout with police near Milan in Italy.

On 21 December, police announced that investigators had found, under the truck's driver's seat, a suspension of deportation permit belonging to Anis Amri, a man who was born in Tataouine, Tunisia, in 1992. The suspect synced with Star Wars, as I noted in a tweet.

The truck came to a stop at one of the Christmas trees in front of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church at the Berlin Market.
 

Here is the scene before the truck knocked one tree down.

Students of Joe Alexander's Back to the Future Predicting 9/11 will recognize the twin pines that symbolize more.

6. Explosion at Aleppo Christmas tree celebration

On December 20, 2016, a well-attended Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in the Syrian city of Aleppo was rocked by an explosion meters away from the gathered crowd. No casualties have been reported.

We are seeing the unfolding of ancient battles in an ancient land.

Aleppo had cultic importance to the Hittites for being the center of worship of the Storm-God*. this religious importance continued after the collapse of the Hittite empire at the hands of the Assyrians and Phrygians in the 12th century BC, when Aleppo became part of the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365-1050 BC), whose king renovated the temple of Hadad which was discovered in 2003.

Modern-day English-speakers commonly refer to the city as Aleppo. It was known in antiquity as Khalpe, Khalibon, and to the Greeks and Romans as Beroea (Βέροια). During the Crusades, and again during the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon of 1923-1946, the name Alep was used. Aleppo represents the Italianised version of this.

The original ancient name, Halab, has survived as the current Arabic name of the city. However, the name is of pre-Arab origin. Some have proposed that halab means "iron" or "copper" in Amorite, one of the north west Semitic Canaanite languages, since the area served as a major source of these metals in antiquity, and the Amorites dominated the region during the Bronze Age. However, according to the 20th-century historian sheikh Kamel al-Ghazzi and to the contemporary linguist priest Barsoum Ayyoub, the name Halab(and consequently Aleppo) derives from the Aramaic word Halaba which means "white", referring to the color of soil and marble abundant in the area. The modern-day Arabic nickname of the city, ash-Shahbaa (Arabic: الشهباء), which means "the white-colored," also allegedly derives from the famous white marble of Aleppo.

From the 11th century it was common rabbinic usage to apply the term "Aram-Zobah" to the area of Aleppo, and many Syrian Jews continue to do so.

*The Storm God: Teshub is depicted holding a triple thunderbolt and a weapon, usually an axe (often double-headed) or mace. The sacred bull common throughout Anatolia was his signature animal, represented by his horned crown or by his steeds Seri and Hurri, who drew his chariot or carried him on their backs.

If you are reminded of Thor, you are seeing the connection.

Did The Nazis Steal Christmas?

 In recent years, the topic of Nazis and Christmas has been re-visited a few times. Why?

Swastika Christmas tree ornaments, "Germanic" cookies and made-up traditions: A new exhibition highlights how the Nazis tried to take Christ out of Christmas. But their attempts to hijack a festival that began with the birth of a Jewish child weren't entirely successful.

Read...here.

If the Nazis were sworn enemies of Christianity, why were they so obsessed with Christmas? And how did they square celebrating the season of goodwill with their racialist policies?

And read on here.

Death on July 4th: The Anniversary Effect

Holidays are anniversaries of important events. Holidays and death go hand in hand. Birth dates and death do too. Those who have died on our nation's birthday encompass the ultimate reflection of the anniversary effect. What is this effect and who were some of these people?

The notion that there is an anniversary syndrome in which deaths are tied to birthdays or important dates in a person's life has been scientifically studied. The after effects of Post Traumatic Stress events can result in depression or rage linked to the anniversary of any traumatic event such as a death, war, or accident.

This is clearest, perhaps, as the date of death of a loved one approaches. The anniversary of a relative, especially a father or mother, can trigger a Sudden Death (SD), according to research that was presented in March 2008, at the American College of Cardiology’s 57th Annual Scientific Session.

“Sudden death is a major public health problem and is responsible for nearly half of all cardiac deaths,” said Juan Marques, M.D., Central University of Venezuela, and co-investigator of this study:

Researchers evaluated a consecutive series of 102 documented sudden death cases of individuals between 37 and 79 years old. Life circumstances that preceded death were investigated. In nearly 70 percent of cases (69 cases), the underlying syndrome was coronary artery disease. In 13 percent of cases (13 cases), SD occurs on the anniversary date of the traumatic event of death of a parent (seven on the anniversary of father’s death, five on the anniversary of mother’s death and one on the anniversary of the death of the mother and father, who died on the same date). Deaths were not related to the loss of any other close family member. Roughly one-third (4 cases) died at a similar age as the family member who died previously....Nearly 80 percent of the patients (10 cases) who died suddenly under the anniversary effect were male. The reason for this is not understood, but may reflect gender differences in response to stressful situations. Source.

Earlier, in 1992, Dr. David P. Phillips, a sociology professor at the University of California in San Diego conducted a study that found that an approaching birthday seems to prolong life in women and precipitate death in men. His study, based on 2,745,149 deaths from natural causes, found that women were more likely to die in the week after their birthdays than in any other week during the year, while men tended to die shortly before their birthdays. It was the first study to show gender differences in so-called anniversary effects: changes in behavior on birthdays, holidays or other personally meaningful occasions.

Birthdays can be either "a deadline or a lifeline," said Phillips. "In our achievement-oriented society, men may find themselves wanting. They don't want to go through another one of these stock-taking periods."

The study was published in the September 1992, Psychosomatic Medicine, the journal of the American Psychosomatic Society, and found 3 percent more deaths than expected among women in the week after a birthday and a slight decline the week before. For men, deaths peaked just before birthdays and showed no rise above normal afterward.

Intriguingly, there are three dates on which Presidents of the United States of America have clustered their dying.

One significant anniversary date is July 4th, Independence Day in the USA. 

After the first leader, George Washington, was the President of the USA, he was followed by John Adams, whose Vice President was Thomas Jefferson, the man who crafted the Declaration of Independence, with Ben Franklin's and John Adams' consultations. The document was signed on July 4, 1776, by landowners, Freemasons, and future leaders of the country. The date it was signed is acknowledged as the Birthdate of our Nation.

On July 4, 1802, the US Military Academy at West Point formally started as an institution for scientific and military learning, reinforcing the importance of the date to the country's founding establishment.

Adams, Jefferson, and Monroe

Then on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, both President No. 2, Adams (born o.s. October 19, 1735) and President No. 3, Jefferson (born o.s. April 2, 1743) died on July 4, 1826.

John Adams's final words, reportedly, were: "Thomas Jefferson survives." But, indeed, Jefferson had passed away just hours earlier at Monticello. The current President at the time was Adam's son, John Quincy Adams.

On the 55th anniversary of the birth of our nation, and on the 5th anniversary of the deaths of those two Presidents, on July 4, 1831, President No. 5, James Monroe died.

The 15th Vice President Hannibal "The Cannibal" Hamlin, born August 27, 1809, in Paris, Maine, and Abraham Lincoln's Vice President during the American Civil War, died on July 4, 1891.

One other notable presidential date is tied to July 4th: President No. 30, Calvin Coolidge, was born on July 4, 1872, in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, the only President to have been born on this day.

It is worth pondering that on July 2, 1881, Charles J. Guiteau shot U.S. President James Garfield, who eventually died from infections on September 19, 1881.

July 4th remains a day that Death chooses to visit those tied to a vividly American view of the world, such as Charles Kuralt (died July 4, 1997) and Jesse Helms (died July 4, 2008).


John Alva Keel, (born March 25, 1930) was a popular writer and ufologist, best known as the author of The Mothman Prophecies; he died on July 3, 2009.
Who will die on July 4th in 2012?


There are two other death clusters for the Presidents.

President No. 13, Millard Fillmore (born January 7, 1800) in 1874 and President No. 27, William Howard Taft (born September 15, 1857) in 1930, both died on March 8. On that same day in 1930 that Taft died, March 8th, so too did Edward Terry Sanford, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The elusiveness of the importance of this date escapes us, for the only significant American event is that in 1817, The New York Stock Exchange was founded on March 8th.

Another important holiday to Americans is Christmas, December 25th. Most people look forward to Christmas positively. Some experience great disappointment after its arrival.

There is another pair of Presidents who died on the same date: President No. 33, Harry S. Truman (born May 8, 1884), in 1972, and President No. 38, Gerald Ford (born July 14, 1913), in 2006, both passed away on December 26th. 

Jason Robards (born July 26, 1922), an actor who played various presidents often in the movies, also died on December 26th, in 2000. Robards played the role of Abraham Lincoln in the TV movie The Perfect Tribute (1991) and supplied the voice for two television documentaries, first for The Presidency: A Splendid Misery (1964), and then again in the title role of the documentary miniseries Lincoln (1992). 

Robards also played the role of Ulysses S. Grant in the dark under-appreciated The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981) and supplied the Union General's voice in Ken Burns' PBS miniseries The Civil War (1990). He also played Franklin D. Roosevelt in FDR: The Final Years (1980). In 1976 he portrayed Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee in the film All the President's Men, based on the book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. The next year, he played fictional president Richard Monckton (based on Richard Nixon) in the television miniseries Washington: Behind Closed Doors (1977) based on John Ehrlichman's novel based on reality, The Company. Robards second to last film was in the very Fortean motion picture, Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia (1999), playing a man dying from lung cancer. Two years after filming, he would die of the same disease on December 26th.

The 26th of December, in the English Commonwealth, is Boxing Day, traditionally a day following Christmas when people in the United Kingdom would box up their presents. The tradition has long included giving money and other gifts to those who were needy and in service positions, but today, it is seen as a banking holiday or another day off from work. It is also St. Stephen's Day, or the Feast of St. Stephen, a Christian Saint's day celebrated on December 26th. It is celebrated with Mummer's parades, and formerly, in Wales, at least, by the bleeding of livestock and "holming" (beating or slashing with holly branches) of late risers and female servants.

Photo at top: Fourth of July fireworks behind the Washington Monument, 1986; U.S. Air Force, camera operator SSGT. Lono Kollars

Leige Attack: 4 Dead, 123 Hurt

Number of people injured in Liege, a city situated in the Meuse River valley, due to today's attack, now stands at 123 - AP Belgian prosecutor says death toll in Liege attack is now 4, including 2 teenagers - AP A gunman has opened fire in the centre of the Belgian city of Liege, killing at least four people and wounding 123. The man also threw grenades into a crowded square from a rooftop before killing himself, reports say. He was named as Nordine Amrani, aged 33. He was known to police for firearms offences. Officials said the attacker acted alone, ruling out terrorism. Medical sources later said two other injured, including a baby girl, had died. This has not been confirmed. The central square in front of the Palais de Justice remains cordoned off this evening. The Christmas market is dark and empty, but it was very different this lunchtime. Scores were enjoying a festive shopping experience when the man now named as Nordine Amrani began shooting and throwing explosives. People began running, screaming, children amongst them. While the 33-year-old attacker was known to the police, having previously faced drug and weapons charges, officers say they currently don't know why he carried out this terrible act. Amrani was jailed for 58 months in September 2008 for possessing firearms and drugs, media reports said. Officials did not confirm this, but said they were aware he had spent some time in prison. Belgian Prime Minister Elio di Rupo, visiting the scene, described the attack as "horrible". "There are no words to describe this tragedy," he said. "We think first and foremost of the innocent victims, their family and friends. We also think of all the people working at the scene and more generally of the people of Liege. "The whole country shares the pain of the families affected. We share the shock of the population." Belgium's King Albert and Queen Paola also came to pay their respects. Amrani had been asked to come for an interview at a police station in connection with charges against him. A resident of Liege, he left home with a rifle, a pistol and three grenades in a bag, prosecutors said. Greg Ienco, a journalist at local newspaper La Meuse-Liege, described the scene of the attack. "We saw four explosions. I was in a building 200m from Saint-Lambert Square," he said. "It was quite incredible. We saw one man on the roof who tried to kill people. This man killed himself with a grenade." Two of the people confirmed dead were boys aged 15 and 17, the third a 75-year-old woman. TV images showed blood splattered across the cobblestones of the square. Several people are reported to be in a serious condition. Medical staff at a field hospital at the scene treated 52 of the injured. Some others made their own way to other hospitals. Roads into the centre of Liege were sealed off but vehicles are now coming back into the city. Explosives experts were called in to search the area for unexploded grenades. People were initially told to stay in buildings but are now returning to the streets. Place Saint-Lambert is a busy intersection, served by hundreds of buses daily. It hosts an annual Christmas market which attracts some 1.5 million visitors a year. "Le Quinze Août" celebration takes place annually on August 15 in Outremeuse and celebrates the Virgin Mary. It is one of the biggest folkloric displays in the city, with a religious procession, a flea market, dances, concerts, and a series of popular games. Nowadays these celebrations start a few days earlier and last until the 16th. Some citizens open their doors to party goers, and serve "peket", the traditional local alcohol. This tradition is linked to the important folkloric character Tchantchès (Walloon for François), a hard-headed but resourceful Walloon boy who lived during Charlemagne's times. Tchantchès is remembered with a statue, a museum, and a number of puppets found all over the city. Liège hosts one of the oldest and biggest Christmas Markets in Belgium. The Saint Nicholas festival around the 6 December is organized by and for the students of the University; for 24 hours, the students (wearing very dirty lab-coats) are allowed to beg for money for drinking.