An Experiment With Drama & Cinematography for the Horton family
Below is the link to our family rendition of this carol which we hope to make an annual tradition. What we like best: the fake windy rain and cool cross over transitions. Our favorite bloopers: King Wenceslas getting tangled in a dramatic flourish of his robed arm, six different guitar audio clips, some played simultaneously (dedicated to the ire of impeccably rhythmic musicians like Wade Jenkins). Below the link is a summary of this venerable martyr’s life written by Josiah with links below that for you to investigate more on your own.
Good Martyr Wenceslas
by
Josiah Horton
Have you ever wondered who “Good King Wenceslas” was? John Neale, a British minister, wrote this carol in 1853. In real life, Wenceslas wasn’t a king, but a duke, and his name wasn’t Wencelas, but Vaclav. He was a duke in Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) in the tenth century. He was a faithful Christian as were his grandparents and father. When Vaclav was thirteen, his father died and his mother took the dukedom. She utterly opposed Christianity and persecuted Christians. Fearing that Vaclav and his Christian grandmother would conspire against her, she even had Vaclav’s grandmother strangled one night. Though young, Vaclav banished his mother from Bohemia and assumed rule. Unlike his mother, Vaclav was a gentle Christian. He was gracious to German missionaries and helped build churches. He was especially known for his generosity to orphans, widows, and the poor. Even so, his jealous younger brother despised him for this and assassinated Vaclav one day while he was walking to church. He died, a martyr, on the steps of the church on September 20, 929 A.D.
Online Sources:
http://vomcblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/song-saint-and-square.html
http://forestbaptistchurch.org/blogs/?p=73