“When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even”

‘Good King Wenceslas’ is a rather odd carol. Who was Wenceslas, and why do we sing about him at Christmas?

#thread
⛪St Andrew's, Wood Walton, Cambridgeshire

Wenceslas was a 10thC Duke of Bohemia (his name in his native Czech was Vaclav). When he was a teenager, his mother sent assassins to murder his grandmother, and then set herself up as Regent.
When Wenceslas turned 18 he banished his mother and took control, giving half of the country to his younger brother, Boleslaus. But on 28 Sept 935, his brother invited him to a feast, and then murdered him. 😱
It was all very Game of Thrones!
Wenceslas was a devout Christian and was passionate about giving alms to the poor - widows, orphans, even prisoners. After his assassination by ‘Boleslaus the Cruel’, ‘Vaklav the Good’ was immediately venerated as a martyr. He was canonised, and posthumously made a King.

📷 Enfo
Fast forward to 1853, when prolific hymn writer John Mason Neale was looking for a carol for St Stephen’s Day (Boxing Day), a day of charity.
Over the centuries, legends had sprung up around Wenceslas’s many charitable acts, often carried out barefoot, and one story told how his footsteps melted snow to make the way easier for his servant. Neale was inspired to write the lyrics for a carol, 'Good King Wenceslas'.
Neale set his lyrics, incongruously, to the music of a medieval spring dance, ‘Tempus Adest Floridum’ (now comes the time of flowers) -  a poem which also features voluptuously in Carl Orff’s setting of the Carmina Burana.
This Christian setting of winter words to a secular spring song has been criticised by numerous composers as an ‘unnatural marriage’.
Percy Dearmer, editor of the English Hymnal, hoped that the carol would ‘gradually pass into disuse, and the tune be restored to spring-time’.
But the hearty foot-stomping tune, evocative lyrics, and message of compassion continue to make this a favourite #ChristmasCarol year after year. Is it a favourite of yours?

⛪St John the Baptist, Allington, Wiltshire

More from For later read

1. The death of Silicon Valley, a thread

How did Silicon Valley die? It was killed by the internet. I will explain.

Yesterday, my friend IRL asked me "Where are good old days when techies were


2. In the "good old days" Silicon Valley was about understanding technology. Silicon, to be precise. These were people who had to understand quantum mechanics, who had to build the near-miraculous devices that we now take for granted, and they had to work

3. Now, I love libertarians, and I share much of their political philosophy. But you have to be socially naive to believe that it has a chance in a real society. In those days, Silicon Valley was not a real society. It was populated by people who understood quantum mechanics

4. Then came the microcomputer revolution. It was created by people who understood how to build computers. One borderline case was Steve Jobs. People claimed that Jobs was surrounded by a "reality distortion field" - that's how good he was at understanding people, not things

5. Still, the heroes of Silicon Valley were the engineers. The people who knew how to build things. Steve Jobs, for all his understanding of people, also had quite a good understanding of technology. He had a libertarian vibe, and so did Silicon Valley
The #worldwildlifeday2021 theme is Forests and Livelihoods: Sustaining People and Planet aligning with UN Sustainable Development Goals 1, 12, 13 and 15. So, what are the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) & how can children begin to learn about them & get involved ?

https://t.co/8ICvHxE9QL is easy & fun to follow for our smallest of people #EYFS. Early childhood is the perfect stage to introduce the core concepts of what it means to be a global citizen. For our reception & KS1 children please take a look at this fabulous free resource

https://t.co/tZx8UIS58Q Storytelling is a powerful communications tool and helps children remember lessons and virtues that they will use in everyday life. The idea is to simplify the lessons of the (SDGs) so young children can relate to – and better understand – the SDGs.

For older children here’s a board game that aims to help teach children around the world about the Sustainable Development Goals in a simple and child-friendly way

This is a lovely free book for children to enjoy flicking through themselves https://t.co/ScMbQCfpjl Elyx, the United Nations’ digital ambassador, uses various expressions and actions to help demonstrate the meaning of each Sustainable Development Goal.

You May Also Like