Have Yourself a Merry Little Holiday...

...and may 2011 prove most fortunate for all of us.

(This tune should be familiar - in the case of the video, played on mandolins by the Mandolin Man - but the haunting progression of notes in what is now known as "The Carol of the Bells" was originally an ancient Ukrainian folk chant for New Years Day which was thought to have magical properties. Eventually it became Shchedryk - a folk song about a little swallow who goes from door to door bearing good fortune - before it was transformed into the Xmas song known today.)