4/30/2014 David Holmes
Is this ghoulish face of a ghost in the city’s Bombay Palace restaurant in Upper Northgate Street?
This ghoulish face peering out of the darkness from the gents in a city centre Indian restaurant is enough to give anybody the willies.
Aaron Ali, co-owner of the family-run Bombay Palace restaurant in Upper Northgate Street, Chester, was sitting in the dark at the front of the eating house about 3am one morning, just before last Christmas, when he heard the sound of a door banging.
Everybody else had gone home, except for the waiter who had retired to his upstairs living quarters, and Mr Ali decided to film the scene on his mobile because he was slightly unnerved by the noise.
However, his mobile was set on stills camera mode and he took a snap shot which looked innocuous at first. However, on zooming in he spotted the creepy looking face in the background, positioned where the gents toilet mirror is located.
Mr Ali explained: “I thought it must be the light hitting the mirror in the gents toilet because when we clean up we use a mop to hold the door open. I thought it was some sort of reflection.
“When you first look at the photo you think there’s nothing there but when you zoom in you can see what looks like a face.”
Mr Ali said customers, a handyman who does work at the restaurant, the chef and his brother Zafor, with whom he runs the business, had always thought there was “something” towards the back of the building.
In addition, an empty coffin had been found in the cellar of the restaurant in the 1980s with no explanation as to what it was doing there.
Mr Ali, from Newton, denied altering the image, saying: “I don’t know anything about computers.”
He had been reluctant to share the photo because he does not want to unsettle his young children who often visit the restaurant. “I don’t want to scare them,” he said.
Top right grey blob – zoom to 400
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Why do Germans Celebrate April 30th?
4/30/2014
Germans will find any reason to celebrate, so before the anarchy on May 1st can begin, they like to bid the evil spirits of winter goodbye by dressing up as witches and warlocks and dance around bonfires.
Walpurgisnacht, the night from April 30th to May 1st takes its name from Saint Walburga, a Catholic Saint, whose feast day is celebrated on May 1st. She was known as the protector against sorcery and witchcraft.
Traditionally, it is the night when witches would gather together on the Brocken, the highest peak of the Harz mountain range in central Germany, and celebrate the triumph of spring over winter.
The Brocken is surrounded in mystery due to the mist and clouds that shroud the peak, and according to legend, is the home of witches and the devil.
The tradition of Walpurgisnacht also features in Goethe’s Faust, when Faust is taken to Brocken by Mephisto to revel with the witches on Walpurgisnacht.
Walpurgisnacht is a noisy and fun affair for the family in Germany. Children and adults dress up as witches and communal bonfires are lit.
At midnight, the official start of spring is heralded by setting off fireworks, dancing and playing loud music – all said to drive the witches and winter spirits away. But not for long, exactly six months later the spooks will return for the start of winter on All Hallow’s Eve.
Nowadays Walpurgisnacht has also become an excuse for causing mayhem.
In Bavaria, the night is known as Hexennacht (witches’ night) and is filled with mischief as cars are sprayed with shaving foam, and paper streamers are hung on trees.
And in Berlin and Hamburg the celebrations are more extreme. As the cities prepare for leftist May Day riots, some already erupt on Walpurgisnacht and carry on through the night.
http://www.thelocal.de/20140430/why-are-germans-celebrating-on-april-30th-walpurgisnacht
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“She was known as the protector against sorcery and witchcraft.”
They got it wrong - nothing about sorcery and/or witchcraft on her bio. She was born 710-777 – http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15526b.htm
