Looking out, there's no snow (or ice) lying all about, deep crisp and/or even. Though it's certainly the case for where my family lives.

#BoxingDay #DayAfterChristmas #GoodKingWenceslas

When teaching, say, the Archpoet's 'Confession' (which begins 'Estuans intrinsecus ira vehementi'), I point out that if a medieval Latin poem can be sung to the melody of 'Good King Wenceslas', the poem is written in the Goliardic stanza.

(Try it out yourselves. A photo of the first three stanzas, from Raby's 'Oxford Book of Medieval Latin Verse', is attached to this post.)

#GoodKingWenceslas #MedievalLatin #Goliardic #Archpoet

This being the 'feast of Stephen', I thought I'd share a tip I have used when teaching the Goliardic stanza in medieval Latin poetry.

The story in the hymn 'Good King Wenceslas' takes place on 26 December, and while not all that many American undergraduates know the words of the hymn, the melody is generally recognisable. The hymn itself is Victorian, with the melody taken from a 16th c collection of Latin songs, though the melody is older....

#GoodKingWenceslas #Goliardic #MedievalLatin

I was at Disney World yesterday, and Space Mountain was playing a heavy metal version of #GoodKingWenceslas.

Happy Feast of Saint Stephen to all who celebrate … especially if you’re a good king who looks out to see a poor man gathering firewood and decides to wine and dine him this night.

#FeastOfSaintStephen #Christmas #carol #GoodKingWenceslas

Today’s my favourite day in the #ChristmasTide — the feast of Stephen (#BoxingDay or #WrenDay as it commonly known).
But why do I like the #FeastOfStephen so much? Two reasons and it’s not really about the Saint or the day:
1. My favourite #Christmas song is #GoodKingWenceslas — it is a beautiful song, with an iconic melody; the song is set on this day “Good King #Wenceslas looked out, On the Feast of Stephen” In fact I like St Wenceslas far more than St Stephen, but that’s another story.
2. This reason is the one I like the most. There is an odd tradition in #England to give unnamed parliamentary buildings the name of “St Stephen’s (insert building here)” — why? Well let’s look at who St Stephen was (in brief).
He is considered the first #Christian #Martyr or known as “Protomartyr”. He he was a deacon in the early #Church at Jerusalem who angered members of various synagogues by his teachings. Accused of blasphemy at his trial, he made a speech denouncing the authorities and was stoned to death in 36 AD.
I was told by an officer of the Houses of Parliament the #myth is that his name is used because he stood for justice and truth, as the Mother Parliament should. An irony — even from its inception and especially today.

And there we go; happy Boxing Day / Feast of Stephen.

#Histodon #histodons #folklore #MythologyMonday @folklore @histodons @mythologymonday @mythologybot

#KarelČapek
Teď o vánocích se po celém anglosaském světě bude zpívat koleda o dobrém králi Václavu. Tak vidíte, je to jako z udělání – nebo je to znamení, jaká sbírá člověk v dobách neutěšených: že i ta naše nejnárodnější tradice je vlastně světová a spojuje nás se světem západním. Co dělat: i když nechceme, půjdeme s jinými lidmi a národy po hřejivých stopách, jež nechal ve sněhu dobrý kníže Václav.

http://karelcapek.blogspot.cz/2016/09/svaty-vaclav.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5E8CXQwtrg

#SvatyVaclav #goodkingwenceslas #koleda

Have been listening again to the Radio 4 Comedy Advent Calendar from 2013.
Behind today's door was @JohnFinnemore's excellent take on the whole Good King Wenceslas/peasant/winter fu-u-el story. The advent calendar needs BBC sign in but you can find the same sketch here too:

#comedy #advent #GoodKingWenceslas #WinterFuuel

https://youtu.be/-ZjtdudO6dU

In his master’s steps he trod,
Where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod
Which the Saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure
Wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing.

#GoodKingWenceslas #Yule #Christmas

In his master’s steps he trod,
Where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod
Which the Saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure
Wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing.

#GoodKingWenceslas #Yule #Christmas

#Brazil #Croatia #CroatiaVsBrazil #Christmas #GoodKingWenceslas

If #CliffRichard can have multiple #Xmas songs, then I'm having another one - so listen to my new upload, a rework of a popular Christmas tune, on #SoundCloud now:

https://soundcloud.com/user-608710217/good-king-wenceslas-on-steroids?si=da480ce3aac141ecaa8327850c3fd5f1&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

One of the local radio stations was playing #ChristmasCarols this morning. That is too early. Although, I did listen to #GoodKingWenceslas before turning it off. It is my favourite actual carol, second fave if you count non-carols that just are a bit Christmas-feelingish.