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The snow isn’t lying about deep and crisp and even today in Prague but still let’s Czech out just why Wenceslas was good anyway.

And why we celebrate him this day, St Stephen’s Day, or Boxing Day, if you will.

Well, quite simply that’ll be down to his good deeds and December 26 traditionally being a giving day.

Most carol singers don’t get past the first verse but the gist is that he helps the poor man gath’ring winter fuel.

It was his USP and it’s why the Czechs, especially, love him.

As big as you get

Quite simply Wenceslas is as big as you get in Prague, alongside King Charles V of course, he of the King Charles V Bridge.

The story goes that if Prague is ever in danger the statue of King Wenceslas will come to life.

He will then raise a sleeping army and reveal a legendary sword to bring peace to the land.

Wenceslas, you see, is sleeping on a grudge, an injustice, a thousand years after being killed by his brother Boleslaus The Cruel.

So you see it’s not just your family, or mine, which has squabbles.

You can find Wenceslas these days in the mammoth St Vitus Cathedral where his remains lie and are venerated.

And, of course his statue in Wenceslas Square, the beating heart of Prague.

Velvet Revolution

You might wonder why he did not rise with his sword when the Nazis wrought carnage on the city.

Or when the Communists moved in and then in 1968 reappeared with their tanks to quell the Rising.

Wenceslaus was looking out though and not just on St Stephen’s Day but every day.

And sharpest between November 17 and 28, 1989, when Wenceslas Square became the cradle of the Velvet Revolution.

The Velvet Revolution

Writing on the wall: At the John Lennon wall

Now if you find yourself in Wenceslas Square today then lucky you.

But despite the carol, written by an Englishman, it is in fact just another day in the Czech calendar.

Although they are like the good king very giving.

There is, of course, a special day for Czechs, St Wenceslas’s Day, the country’s national day when he is celebrated, September 28.

Now, any time to visit Prague is a good time, but their national day, their Wenceslas Day could be a chance to renew my Czech connections.

And a further opportunity to Czech out just why Wenceslas was good… and toast their patron saint of beer with Pilsner Urquell.

And Ryanair with flights from Edinburgh, and likely your city, from €24.99.

Spotted in an Edinburgh windae, Fae Leith Navidad… a Christmas Cracker for St Stephen’s Day.

Which only goes to show that there’s a Dad Joke for every day of the year if you only know where to find them.

Now yours have been pulled and disposed of among crumpled gift wrapping for collection which gags will be keeping?

Not ‘why did Santa’s reindeers have sore heads on St Stephen’s Day/Boxing Day?’

‘Because they’d been on the tiles’.

Which had Daddy’s Little Girl’ scratching her green and white Suntie hat.

St Stephen’s Day gag

And on the subject of St Stephen, his one and only gag.

An old standard which I’m surprised she hadn’t heard did raise a smile.

‘What was Good King Wenceslas’s favourite pizza?’

‘Deep pan, crisp and even’

You know the oul’ Christmas carol… ‘Good King Wenceslas first looked out on the Feast of Stephen…

‘Where the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even.’

And like me you may have been given a tin of Dancing Dad jokes this year.

Although I reckon I probably wrote them all.

Wenceslas Square

Now back on Good King Wenceslas you can find him, of course, in proud Prague.

Peerless on his stead in Wenceslas Square.

Wenceslas Square is where Czechs assemble at their most perilous moments.

And they, of course, met there for a poignant candle procession for the Charles University shootings.

Just as they have throughout their history.

As with all the best legends there is a myth surrounding it.

And this one surrounds a young adventurer Bruncvik and his quest to return to his true love Neomenia.

And a secret magic sword (aren’t they all) hidden somewhere among the stones of Charles Bridge.

The Sword of Truth

Yes, you guessed it, only one man knows where it is, King Wenceslas.

And he will return to wield it when his people are at their most vulnerable.

The stone of the Statue will burn away and from the ashes will emerge King Wenceslas.

When he will issue his cri de coeur ‘Sleeping Army of Blanik, rise from your slumber!”

Be warned.

Czech out the history

Of course, the Czechs have long endured invaders, from the Hapsburgs through the Nazis to the Communists.

Biding their time before striking back.

As they did in 1945, to chase the Nazis out of Wenceslas Square.

And again in 1968 where they bravely took the fight to the Soviets who met that by rolling their tanks into the Czech capital.

The Czechs did what they had always done, bedded down, and took on the ‘power to the people’ exhortations of John Lennon, at the Lennon wall.

Before they had their salvation with the Velvet Revolution in 1989 which they celebrated you know where.

A Square deal

So, if you’re lucky enough to be in Wenceslas Square then get yourself your selfie with the our hero.

If you’re a local you’ll probably have met at his tail for a date which is tradition.

And you’ll certainly want to buy something from their dinky tabak kiosks.

And note to Son and Heir who finished off my Becherovka and said he would buy another bottle.

You can get them here, and obviously anywhere in the Czech capital but it’s more fun from a kiosk shaped like a Becherovka bottle.

So Prague is where you want to be today, and many other days tbh.

Wenceslas Square where it’s a Christmas Cracker for St Stephen’s Day.