{"id":5011,"date":"2021-12-26T09:06:09","date_gmt":"2021-12-26T15:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/darknessovertheland.com\/?p=5011"},"modified":"2021-12-26T09:06:09","modified_gmt":"2021-12-26T15:06:09","slug":"the-feast-of-stephen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/darknessovertheland.com\/?p=5011","title":{"rendered":"On The Feast of Stephen\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Good King Wenceslaus went out<\/em><br \/>\n<em>On the Feast of Stephen,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>When the snow lay round about<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Deep and crisp and even.<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>O.K., Christians of the world: Church history for one hundred. When is the Feast of Stephen and to whom does it refer? (Pause for hemming and hawing.)<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s December 26, the day after Christmas, when the death of the church&#8217;s first martyr, Stephen, is traditionally commemorated. Trivial, yes, but most Christians can&#8217;t give me the correct answer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/khouse.org\/articles\/2000\/310\/\">The Feast of Stephen: Christmas Traditions: \u2013 John Loeffler \u2013 Koinonia House<\/a><\/p>\n<p>For over 60 years I did not know this. The reference to the &#8220;feast of Stephen&#8221; in the carol was lost on me. Therefore I didn&#8217;t really understand the carol. Proof (to me) that Western culture and traditions have not been passed down to the younger generations. We are seeing the results of this now. Ignorance is causing societal chaos.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr\">Today is traditionally the &#8220;Second Day of Christmas&#8221; in the Western church, or St. Stephen&#8217;s Day, aka the &#8220;Feast of Stephen&#8221;, as referenced in the carol &#8220;Good King Wenceslas.&#8221;<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr\">Stephen was the first Christian martyr as recorded in Acts 7:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<blockquote>\n<div class=\"public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr\">58. And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man\u2019s feet, whose name was Saul.<\/div>\n<div class=\"public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr\">59. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr\">Acts 7:1-57 is basically Stephen bearing his testimony of the risen Christ, which is what enraged the crowd.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5012\" src=\"https:\/\/darknessovertheland.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/stephen-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"660\" height=\"915\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Good King Wenceslaus went out On the Feast of Stephen, When the snow lay round about Deep and crisp and even. O.K., Christians of the world: Church history for one hundred. When is the Feast of Stephen and to whom does it refer? (Pause for hemming and hawing.) It&#8217;s December 26, the day after Christmas, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/darknessovertheland.com\/?p=5011\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">On The Feast of Stephen\u2026<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/darknessovertheland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/darknessovertheland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/darknessovertheland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darknessovertheland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darknessovertheland.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/darknessovertheland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5011\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/darknessovertheland.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darknessovertheland.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darknessovertheland.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}