Good King Wenceslas

"Good King Wenceslas" is a popular Christmas carol that tells a story of a Czech king going on a journey and braving harsh winter weather to give alms to a poor peasant on the Feast of Stephen (December 26, the day after Christmas). During the journey, his page is about to give up the struggle against the cold weather, but is enabled to continue by following the king's footprints, step for step, through the deep snow. The legend is based on the life of the historical Saint Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia or Svatý Václav in Czech (907–935). The name Wenceslas is a Latinised version of the modern Czech language "Vaclav".

In 1853, English hymnwriter John Mason Neale wrote the "Wenceslas" lyrics, in collaboration with his music editor Thomas Helmore, and the carol first appeared in Carols for Christmas-Tide, 1853. Neale's lyrics were set to the melody of a 13th-century spring carol "Tempus adest floridum" ("The time is near for flowering") first published in the 1582 Finnish song collection Piae Cantiones.

Great King

Great King and the equivalent in many languages is a semantic title for historical titles of Monarchs, suggesting an elevated status among the host of Kings and Princes. This title is most usually associated with the shahanshah (Shah of shahs, i.e. king of kings, indeed translated in Greek Basileus toon basileoon, later adopted by the Byzantine emperors) of Persia under the Achaemenid dynasty whose vast empire in Asia lasted for 200 years up to the year 330 BC, and later adopted by successors of the Achaemenid empire whose monarchial names were also succeeded by "the Great". In comparison, High King was used by ancient rulers in Britain, Scotland and Ireland, as well as Greece.

In the 2nd Millennium BCE Near East, there was a tradition of reciprocally using such addresses between powers as a way of diplomatically recognizing each other as an equal. Only the kings of countries who were not subject to any other king and powerful enough to draw the respect from their adversaries were allowed to use the title of Great King. Those were the kings of Egypt, Hatti, Babylonia, Mitanni (until its demise in the 14th century), Assyria (only after the demise of Mitanni), and for a brief time Myceneans. Great Kings referred to each other as brothers and often established close relationships by means of marriages and frequent gift exchange. Letters exchanged between these rulers, several of which has been recovered especially in Amarna and Hittite archives, provide details of this diplomacy.

Good

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The Irish Rovers

The Irish Rovers is a group of Irish musicians, half of whom now live in Canada. The Canadian Irish folk group created in 1963 and named after the traditional song "The Irish Rover" is best known for their international television series, contributing to the popularization of Irish Music in North America, and for the songs "The Unicorn," "Wasn't That A Party," "The Orange and the Green," "Whiskey on a Sunday," "Lily The Pink," and "The Black Velvet Band."

The primary voices heard in the group's early songs were Will Millar (tenor), Jimmy Ferguson (baritone), George Millar and Joe Millar, and in the last twenty years, also John Reynolds and Ian Millar. Wilcil McDowell's accordion has been a signature sound of the band throughout their more than 50 years.

Flute/whistle player Geoffrey Kelly was born in Dumfries, Scotland.

In the 1980s, the group briefly renamed itself The Rovers. During this period, their "Wasn't That a Party" led to crossover success in the country rock genre.

Christmas carol

A Christmas carol (also called a noël, from the French word meaning "Christmas") is a carol (song or hymn) whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas, and which is traditionally sung on Christmas itself or during the surrounding holiday season. Christmas carols may be regarded as a subset of the broader category of Christmas music.

History

The first known Christmas hymns may be traced to fourth century Rome. Latin hymns such as Veni redemptor gentium, written by Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, were austere statements of the theological doctrine of the Incarnation in opposition to Arianism. Corde natus ex Parentis (Of the Father's heart begotten) by the Spanish poet Prudentius (d. 413) is still sung in some churches today. The early history is detailed in several books, including Noel: The History and Traditional Behind Christmas Carols (2010 Halifax Press ISBN 978-0-9829700-1-0)

In the ninth and tenth centuries, the Christmas "Sequence" or "Prose" was introduced in Northern European monasteries, developing under Bernard of Clairvaux into a sequence of rhymed stanzas. In the twelfth century the Parisian monk Adam of St. Victor began to derive music from popular songs, introducing something closer to the traditional Christmas carol.