Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia from 921 to 935, was nicknamed Václav the Good and had a reputation for piety and heroic virtue. He was assassinated at the behest of his younger brother, Boleslaus the Cruel, and was soon after proclaimed a martyr and later a patron saint of the Czechs.
Wenceslaus' feast day is celebrated on the day he died, September 28, in the Czech Republic. The feast day is a public holiday that doubles as Czech Statehood Day.
The carol "Good King Wenceslas" was composed by English hymnwriter John Mason Neale in 1853 in collaboration with his music editor Thomas Helmore. The carol was written for the Feast of St. Stephen, hence the “Feast of Stephen” in the first stanza of the lyrics. Better known as Boxing Day, St. Stephen’s Day celebrates the Christian tradition of charitable giving on the Second Day of Christmas, or December 26.
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.
An illustrated version of "Good King Wenceslas" was the first book published by the Birmingham Guild of Handicraft in 1895 and it helped popularize the Christmas song. The illustrator was Arthur Gaskin, an influential figure in Birmingham's flourishing Arts and Crafts movement and featured in Victorian Radicals.
"Gaskin dedicated the book to his fellow artist and new wife, Georgia, who had designed the title page, and gave his copy of the limited edition of 125, printed on handmade paper, to his parents. The introduction by William Morris describes Gaskin's illustrations as having 'given me a very great pleasure, both as achievements in themselves and as giving hope of a turn towards the ornamental side of illustration, which is most desirable."