"Good King Wenceslas" is a popular Christmas carol that tells the story of a Czech king braving harsh winter weather to give alms to a poor peasant on the Feast of Stephen. When is the feast of St. Stephen?
"Good King Wenceslas" is a popular Christmas carol that tells a story of a Czech king on a journey in 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".
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Alan J was first and correct with:
December 26 in the Western Church. December 27 in the Eastern Church.
Mark. said:
It depends. In the western church the Feast of St. Stephen is December
26. In the eastern church it's December 27. No matter when his feast is
celebrated St. Stephen is a favorite of Deadheads any old day.
Grateful Dead - St. Stephen
Jim from CA, retired to ID, replied:
St. Stephen's Day, or the Feast of Saint Stephen, is a Christian saint's day to commemorate Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr or protomartyr, celebrated on 26 December in the Western Church and 27 December in the Eastern Church.
Adam answered:
26 Dec; it is considered part of the basis for Boxing Day.
Marian responded:
December 26th
MAM wrote:
December 26 ~ The day after Christmas, when the death of the church's first martyr, Stephen, is traditionally commemorated. He wasaccused of blespemy and was stoned to death.
Joe S said:
St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr (poor fellow) has a feast day celebrated the same day as Boxing Day, December 26. There needed to be a reason to celebrate and eat all those leftovers from the Master's tables. Reminds me of some of my favorite carols.
Good King Sauerkraut Looked Down On His Feets Uneven Deck Us All With Boston Charlie
Lois Of Oregon took the day off.
mj took the day off.
Dale of Diamond Springs, Norwintercali took the day off.
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CBS starts the night with '60 Minutes', followed by a FRESH'Undercover Boss', then a RERUN'CSI: The Original One', followed by another RERUN'CSI: The Original One'.
NBC fills the night with LIVE'Sunday Night Football', then pads the left coast with local crap and maybe an old 'Dateline'.
ABC begins the night with a RERUN'America's So-Called Funniest Home Videos', followed by a RERUN'The Muppets', then another RERUN'The Muppets', followed by still another RERUN'The Muppets', then yet another RERUN'The Muppets', followed by a RERUN'Shark Tank'.
The CW offers an old 'Person Of Interest', followed by an old 'Elementary', then 2½ hours of what passes for local news and other fluffery.
Faux an old 'Modern Family ', followed by another old 'Modern Family', then a RERUN'The Simpsons', followed by a RERUN'Brooklyn Nine-Nine', then a RERUN'Family Guy', followed by a RERUN'Last Man On Earth'.
MY has an old 'Anger Mangement', followed by another old 'Anger Management', then an old 'Big Bang Theory', followed by another old 'Big Bang Theory', then still another old 'Big Bang Theory', followed by yet another old 'Big Bang Theory'.
A&E has the movie 'Twister', followed by the movie 'Ocean's Eleven'.
AMC offers the movie 'Armageddon', followed by the movie 'Gone In 60 Minutes', then the movie 'Armageddon'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 6, Ep 8 - Let's Kill Hitler
[7:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 6, Ep 9 - Night Terrors
[8:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 6, Ep 10 - The Girl Who Waited
[9:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 6, Ep 13 - The Wedding of River Song
[10:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 7, Ep 1 - Asylum of the Daleks
[11:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 7, Ep 2 - Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
[12:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 7, Ep 3 - A Town Called Mercy
[1:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 7, Ep 4 - The Power of Three
[2:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 7, Ep 5 - The Angels Take Manhattan
[3:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 7, Ep 6 - The Bells of Saint John
[4:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 7, Ep 7 - The Rings of Akhaten
[5:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 7, Ep 8 - Cold War
[6:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 7, Ep 9 - Hide
[7:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 7, Ep 10 - Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS
[8:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 7, Ep 11 - The Crimson Horror
[9:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 7, Ep 12 - Nightmare in Silver
[10:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 7.2, Ep 13 - The Name of the Doctor
[11:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 6, Ep 7 - A Good Man Goes to War
[12:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 6, Ep 8 - Let's Kill Hitler
[1:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 6, Ep 9 - Night Terrors
[2:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 6, Ep 10 - The Girl Who Waited
[3:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 6.2, Ep 11 - The God Complex
[4:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - , Ep 12 - Closing Time
[5:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 6.2, Ep 13 - The Wedding of River Song (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has a FRESH'Atlanta Social', followed by a FRESH'Real Housewives Of Atlanta', 'Vanderpump Rules', followed by a FRESH'Work Out NY'.
Comedy Central has the movie 'Tommy Boy', followed by the movie 'Dumb & Dumber', then the movie 'Tommy Boy'.
FX has the movie 'Alvin & The Chipmunks: The Squaksquel', followed by the movie 'Alvin & The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked'.
History has 'Ax Men', followed by a FRESH'Ax Men: Logged & Loaded', then a FRESH'Ax Men', and 'The Curse Of Oak Island'.
IFC -
[6:00AM] THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL
[8:30AM] THE MATRIX
[11:30AM] THE MATRIX RELOADED
[2:30PM] THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS
[5:30PM] ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13
[8:00PM] ATTACK THE BLOCK
[10:00PM] SHAUN OF THE DEAD
[12:15AM] ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13
[2:45AM] MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD
[5:45AM] COMEDY BANG! BANG!-Maya Rudolph (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00AM] The Rifleman-The Trade
[6:30AM] The Rifleman-One Went to Denver
[7:00AM] The Rifleman-The Deadly Wait
[7:30AM] The Rifleman-The Wrong Man
[8:00AM] The Rifleman-The Challenge
[8:30AM] The Rifleman-The Hawk
[9:00AM] The Rifleman-Three-Legged Terror
[9:30AM] The Rifleman-The Angry Man
[10:00AM] The Rifleman-The Woman
[10:30AM] The Rifleman-The Money Gun
[11:00AM] The Rifleman-A Matter of Faith
[11:30AM] The Rifleman-Blood Brother
[12:00PM] The Rifleman-Stranger at Night
[12:30PM] Pale Rider
[3:00PM] Close Encounters of the Third Kind
[6:00PM] One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
[9:00PM] The Shining
[12:30AM] A Nightmare on Elm Street
[2:30AM] A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
[4:30AM] Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter-Writers
[5:30AM] The Writers' Room-House of Cards (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'the Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones', followed by the movie 'Oz The Great & Powerful'.
A salsa dancer performs in the "Salsodromo" parade, which marks the start of the Fair of Cali, Colombia, December 25, 2015. Picture taken December 25, 2015.
Photo by Jaime Saldarriaga
A band from Guatemala has been unable to get visas to participate in the New Year's Day Rose Parade.
The Tournament of Roses' music committee chairman, Richard De Jesu, says there's no word on why visas were denied for the 340-member Latin band Instituto Pedro Molina.
De Jesu tells the Pasadena Star-News that he's never encountered such a situation in his 25 years with the parade organization.
The band appeared in the Rose Parade five years ago.
Indian folk artists performs a piece from Hindu mythology epic 'Mahabharata' during the 'Abhijna-2015' event organized by the Abhinava Dance School, in Bangalore, India, 26 December 2015. Over 200 classical dance students of the Abhinava Dance School performed different Indian classical dance art forms, such as bharatanatyam, kathak and kuchipudi, in this two-day event, which gives an opportunity to young artists to showcase their skills.
Photo by Jagadeesh Nv
Why try to understand complicated things like demographics for the decline of your faith when you can blame gays and liberals for waging a "war on religion?"
Among the Christian Right, and most Republican presidential candidates, it's now an article of faith that the United States is persecuting Christians and Christian-owned businesses-that religion itself is under attack.
Why has this bizarre myth that Christianity is under assault in the most religious developed country on Earth been so successful? Because, in a way, it's true. American Christianity is in decline-not because of a "war on faith" but because of a host of demographic and social trends. The gays and liberals are just scapegoats.
The idea that Christians are being persecuted resonates with millennia-old self-conceptions of Christian martyrdom. Even when the church controlled half the wealth in Europe, it styled itself as the flock of the poor and the marginalized. Whether true or not as a matter of fact, it is absolutely true as a matter of myth. Christ himself was persecuted and even crucified, after all. So it's natural that Christianity losing ground in America would be seen by many Christians as the result of persecution.
According to a Pew Research Report released earlier this year, the percentage of the U.S. population that identifies as Christian has dropped from 78.4 percent in 2007 to 70.6 percent in 2014. Evangelical, Catholic, and mainline Protestant affiliations have all declined.
The Catalina Island fox, one of the world's most endangered species, suffered from frequent tumors for the past decade until scientists discovered a relatively simple solution: treating ear mites.
Research by veterinarians at the University of California, Davis and the Catalina Island Conservancy shows treating ear mites with an anti-parasitic drug helps block cancer, according to the Daily Breeze of Torrance. Ear infections that can lead to cancer were reduced from 98 percent to 10 percent among foxes that received the drug during a six-month trial.
Efforts to save the foxes, one of the six subspecies of the island gray fox native to the Channel Islands, began in the late 1990s when residents noticed the population declined - a result of canine distemper brought by visitors. The disease killed roughly 90 percent of the island fox population.
As of 1999, roughly 100 foxes remained, said Winston Vickers, associate veterinarian at University of California, Davis, and lead author of the study. As a result, all fox populations on the island were listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act.
The numbers have rebounded so much that the Catalina Island fox may no longer be listed as an endangered species. The designation, which prohibits hunting of the animals and other restrictions, is under review by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Belarussian girls wearing traditional costumes sing carol songs during Koliady celebrations in the village of Ozertso, some 5 km from Minsk, Belarus, 26 December 2015. Koliady is an ancient pagan holiday initially celebrated on winter solstice.
Photo by Tatyana Zenkovich
A New Jersey dentist believes an engraved piece of cow horn that goes up for auction next month symbolizes the American dream for a man who was key to the founding of the United States and is now the focus of a blockbuster hip-hop Broadway musical.
A descendant, an arms appraiser and a forensic documents expert said they believe Alexander Hamilton used the horn to carry gunpowder.
The powder horn is inscribed with his name and 1773, the year in which Hamilton, born out of wedlock in the Caribbean island of Nevis and later orphaned, entered what today is Columbia University. Hamilton would have used it leading troops during the Revolutionary War and as an aide to Gen. George Washington.
It could have been by his side above the banks of the Hudson River in Weehawken, New Jersey, when the man who was the nation's first treasury secretary was mortally wounded in a duel with Aaron Burr in 1804 and died at age 49.
Disneyland is pulling the plug on some of its older eateries and attractions to make room for a brand new Star Wars land, based on the new movie, The Force Awakens.
The shutdown begins on January 10, 2016 and includes roughly 14 percent of all attractions. It will include both permanent and temporary closures. The area to be updated takes up almost a quarter of the 85 acres that constitutes Disneyland.
Permanent closures include Frontierland's Big Thunder Ranch, Big Thunder Jamboree, Big Thunder Ranch Barbecue, and the Big Thunder Ranch petting zoo, reports the LA Times. The animals from the petting zoo have already been found a good home. A family from Southern California that has worked previously with Disney animals has adopted them all.
The Rivers of America section will have some exhibits closed on a temporary basis, including Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes, the Sailing Ship Columbia, The Disneyland Railroad, the Pirates Lair on Tom Sawyer Island, Fantastic and the Mark Twain Riverboat, reported TIME.
The new Star Wars section of the park is the largest expansion in Disneyland's history and will encompass a full 14 acres. Disney employees that work in the offices located north of Big Thunder Ranch have already begun to move into a couple of office buildings on South Manchester Avenue that the company purchased last year.
A whirling dervish performs a traditional Sufi dance on the occasion of Prophet Mohammed's birthday in Aleppo, Syria December 25, 2015.
Photo by Ammar Abdullah
When no charges are filed following an arrest, it can look like a "Get out of Jail Free" card. Without charges, there are no future legal fees, no trial, no potential prison time. But for some who are arrested and never charged, there can still be a very steep cost: bail.
Take the case of Crystal Patterson, who was arrested for assault in San Francisco back in October. Unable to pay her $150,000 bail or put up equal assets, the 39-year-old paid a bail bonds company $15,000 to post bail for her. That allowed her to get home to her ailing grandmother, who needed her care, but it also left her with a significant debt that would quickly gather interest.
No charges were filed, but Patterson by no means got off clean. Now, a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of her and other inmates argues that the cash bail system used in San Francisco and across California is unconstitutional.
"The bail system in most states is a two-tiered system," Phil Telfeyan, founder of Equal Justice Under Law, the nonprofit law clinic that filed the lawsuit, told The Associated Press. "One for the wealthy and one for everyone else."
A win in California could help to create changes in other states as well-but this is far from being the only effort being undertaken to change the cash bond system. Across the country, criminal justice reformers are seeking to change bail, with proposals that include a credit-card-based system, bail funds to help poor defendants, and abolishing the cash bail system altogether, as the California lawsuit seeks to do. Not only does it put an undue financial burden on those who cannot afford to post bail, but it can also result in innocent people being put in prison.
Participants swim in the Vltava river during the traditional Christmas winter swimming competition in Prague, Czech Republic, 26 December 2015. Enthusiast swimmers every year brave the cold waters of the Vltava river for a swim on 26 December.
Photo by Filip Singer
His task was to solve a cruel mystery decades after a serial killer's death.
Sgt. Jason Moran's work began in a graveyard, his first stop in his quest to identify the eight unknown victims of John Wayne Gacy. More than 30 years had passed since Gacy had murdered 33 young men and boys.
Investigators now had more sophisticated crime-solving tools, notably DNA, so the Cook County sheriff's detective was assigned to find out who was buried in eight anonymous graves.
Since then, though, his search has led him down a totally unexpected path: He's cleared 11 unrelated cold cases across America. After eliminating these young men as Gacy victims, he's pored over DNA results, medical and Social Security records, enlisted anthropologists, lab technicians and police in Utah, Colorado, New Jersey and other states - and cracked missing person's cases that had been dormant for decades.
Most recently, Moran identified a 16-year-old murder victim in San Francisco who'd been buried 36 years ago.
Taiwanese wearing protection mask carry placards and effigies as they join a protest march in Taipei, Taiwan, 26 December 2015. Taiwanese resident and environmental activists staged a protest calling on the Taiwanese government to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emission and combat air pollution.
Photo by Ritchie B. Tongo
A newly discovered fungus is killing a tree that's critical to Hawaii's water supply, endangered native birds and Hawaiian cultural traditions like hula.
The disease called rapid ohia death has hit hundreds of thousands of ohia lehua trees on the Big Island. As of last year, it was found to have affected 50 percent of the ohia trees across 6,000 acres of forest, but it's believed to have spread further since then. To date, it's been found primarily in Puna but also in Kona and Kau. It hasn't been seen anywhere else in the world.
Robert Hauff, the forest health coordinator at the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, said the state is planning aerial surveys next month to learn how many acres are affected by the fungus. A world expert in similar diseases is also expected to visit the islands to advise the state on how to control the outbreak.
Ohia is important to the water supply because it's so effective at soaking water into the ground and replenishing the watershed. It's critical for native birds because the animals feed on its nectar. It provides a canopy to native plants growing underneath it in the forests.
The state Department of Agriculture has created rules prohibiting moving wood, flowers and other parts of the ohia tree between islands. The state is also encouraging people to clean tools used on ohia and clean shoes and clothes used near ohia.
Spectators aboard a tall ship watch as maxi yachts Perpetual Loyal and Wild Oats XI (L) race south in the Pacific Ocean during the 71st Sydney to Hobart Yacht race, Australia's premiere bluewater classic, December 26, 2015.
Photo by Jason Reed
Chile is carrying out a feasibility study for the construction of a permanent pier at one of its bases in Antarctica, an official was quoted as saying Friday.
The move, being explored by the Ministry of Public Works, would facilitate access to the far-flung area for both scientists and tourists.
The ministry said the first stage was to scout out a suitable place for the pier in Fildes Bay on King George Island where the small town of Villa Las Estrellas, part of the Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva base, is located.
Villa Las Estrellas was built in 1984 and is home to families of service members stationed at the Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva base, one of three permanent Chilean bases in Antarctica.
With a population of 80 in winter and 150 in summer, the hamlet has all basic services -- a bank, post office, church, school, as well as radio, television and Internet access.
Hall was a participant on "The Late Show With David Letterman" for eight months in 2004-05, each night waving goodnight to the audience with a huge bouquet of flowers in-arms.
She is survived by her husband, actor Gil Rogers, and daughter Amanda.
William Guest, a member of Gladys Knight and the Pips, has died. He was 74.
Guest's sister-in-law, Dhyana Ziegler, said he died Thursday in Detroit of congestive heart failure.
Guest performed throughout the lifespan of the Grammy-winning group from 1953 to 1989. He performed background vocals on hits such as "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and "Midnight Train to Georgia."
Gladys Knight and the Pips were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Apollo Hall of Fame in 2006.
After the group ended, Guest and another member, the late Edward Patten, formed a production company. Guest later served as CEO of Crew Records. He released his autobiography "Midnight Train From Georgia: A Pips Journey" in 2013 with Ziegler.
In this Thursday, Dec. 24, 2015 photo, Ranny, a female snow leopard, eats raw meat given as a Christmas gift at Lincoln Children's Zoo in Lincoln, Neb.
Photo by Gwyneth Roberts
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