Through the past brightly
Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the Feast of Stephen
When the slow ray round about
Deep and crisp and crispy Brightly showed the boot last night
On the musty cruel
Henry Hall and David Light Betty Grable too
— The Beatles on their 1963 Fan Club Christmas message Happy Feast of Stephen. That’s today, December 26. Stephen was the first martyr of the Roman Christian church. The Eastern church celebrate the 27th. Splitters. Now you know some Medieval religious history. You’re welcome.
It’s an official public holiday in Alsace-moselle, Austria, the Balearic Islands, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Catalonia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden,
Ukraine, and Switzerland. The date is also a public holiday in those countries that celebrate Boxing Day on the day in addition to or instead of Saint Stephen’s Day, such as Australia, Canada, South Africa and the United Kingdom.
That’s why they call me Mr. Knowledge.
So write your congressman or congress woman, we need an extra holiday to recover from the hustle and bustle of Christmas. Not to mention time to recover if you’d been havin’ a dram or two of good Irish whiskey (Teeling Single Malt if you’re my Secret Santa) .
The opening lyrics are from the record the Beatles sent out to the members of their fan club at Christmas. The boys recorded a comedy single every year from ‘63 through 1968.
John Lennon, in addition to composing some of the greatest songs of the 20th century, published two books of hilarious “Jabberwocky-esque” doggerel, “In His Own Write” and “A Spaniard in the Works.”
“A man travelling on a train — like you or I — to Scotland, had two or two bad eggs in his pocket — and you know — no one would sit by him.”
— John Lennon, “A Spaniard
in the Works”
Henry Hall, mentioned in the song, was an English bandleader who performed regularly on BBC Radio during the British dance band era of the 1 920s and 1930s, through to the 1960s
God and John only know who David Light is, Google and I have no clue.
So enjoy the Feast of Stephen in your own special way. Catch up on some sleep. Have your wife take care of exchanging any unwanted gifts. Or, like Old Wenceslaus, you could just . . . “look out.”
I was pretty much up on all religious feast days back in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s when I was an adorable little Catholic boy. My second grade nun gave me a copy of “The lives of the Saints,” which I devoured, cover to cover.
St. Barbara (December 4) was one of my favorites. Barbara was murdered by her no good pagan father Dioscorus for her Christian faith. He led her up a mountain and cut her head off. Now for the miracle. No, God didn’t bring her back to life (which would have gotten my vote) but . . . on his way back down the mountain, Dioscorus was struck by lightning and burned to a cinder. Hah!
Christmas was a wonderful time when I was a kid. Kindergarten through grade 12, I went to a series of three Catholic schools, St. James in Syracuse, Immaculate Conception in Fayetteville and Msgr. John W. O’rafferty in Lansing. I was very much into the babe in the manger.
Every Christmas from first grade through sixth, I made my own Nativity scene. I was an artist from early on so
I’d draw Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus along with a pack of shepherds and angels. I’d stand them up and stick them in a shoe box painted brown and my mom would bring home a little bag of straw from a hobby shop for me to strew around in the “stable.”
I’d place it under the Christmas tree, lie on the floor and stare at it for hours. I may have been a little OCD.
I was way into Santa Claus too. I used creep downstairs at the crack of dawn and it seemed like the whole room with the tree and all the presents floated in a golden mist.
Hope you had a great Christmas.
And so it went.
Happy Feast of Stephen. That’s today, December 26. Stephen was the first martyr of the Roman Christian church.