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On The Second Day of Christmas, Bing Crosby Gave To Me... (Good King Wenceslas)

09 Dec 2009
UPDATE: I forgot to add that Bing was very reticent to make Christmas albums at all (he felt wrong taking money for these works). All the profits from his holiday records went to charity.

Some Christmas tunes – at least the timeless ones – bring back vivid memories of studying the album covers and liner notes & graphics of the records in my parents' collection as I listened to the crooners of their day singing these festive songs. I think the memories are definitely more engrained due to the 'tactileness' (not a word, btw) of the experience of removing the jet-black vinyl disc from the cover and placing it on the turntable, then carefully lifting the arm to start the music. The crackles & pops seemed to made the audio experience all the more authentic or real.

One song I loved to play – Good King Wenceslas – was on Bing Crosby's "Songs of Christmas" LP record (spinning at a blazingly fast 33⅓ revolutions per minute). Looking back, I think it was the fact that it told a story so well and had elements that were just so foreign to me then. Despite its complete lack of a Gospel message, I could not help but include it in my Carol a Day project (and, I believe I've found a good tie-in to both the Christmas story and the cross)

You will probably not be shocked to find out that John Mason Neale, a.k.a. "The CarolMaster", is behind this Christmas favorite as well, and it is one more macaronic poem he translated with the source material coming from Václav Alois Svoboda (he was Czechoslovakian) written in a combination of Latin, classic German and Czech.

The song relates the legend of Wenceslas, a Bohemian king, who goes out to give gifts and money to a destitute commoner on the December 26 – the second day of Christmas and the Feast of St Stephen in high church tradition. He takes one of his servants with him who is nearly consumed by the winter weather but is saved by following in the king's footsteps. The carol ends with an overt moral to the story.

While they do not talk about the birth of Christ and are bereft of the Great Work of Salvation, the carol/legend makes me think of Philippians 2:1-11:

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

(I love how Paul puts Christmas in the context of Easter in this passage.)

If you enjoy this carol like I do, I hope this scriptural juxtaposition gives you pause for reflection as you listen to or sing along with it. Do your (or my) deeds give light to others to help them find their way to Christ? Are the steps you (or I) take ones that others would want to follow in? And, finally, are you (or I) humbling ourselves daily so that the needs of others are placed before that of our own?

Good King Wenceslas

Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the Feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even;
Brightly shone the moon that night, tho' the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight, gath'ring winter fuel.

"Hither, page, and stand by me, if thou know'st it, telling,
Yonder peasant, who is he? Where and what his dwelling?"
"Sire, he lives a good league hence, underneath the mountain;
Right against the forest fence, by Saint Agnes' fountain."

"Bring me flesh, and bring me wine, bring me pine logs hither:
Thou and I will see him dine, when we bear them thither."
Page and monarch, forth they went, forth they went together;
Through the rude wind's wild lament and the bitter weather.

"Sire, the night is darker now, and the wind blows stronger;
Fails my heart, I know not how; I can go no longer."
"Mark my footsteps, good my page. Tread thou in them boldly
Thou shalt find the winter's rage freeze thy blood less coldly."

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.
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