Prague Spring

Shortly after the Iron Curtain came down in 1989, my wife and I visited Prague. It is a beautiful city, and it was especially fortunate that its architecture had survived intact through both the Second World War and the Stalin era. We wanted to get there before the arrival of McDonald’s, and much that goes with the spread of Anglo-Saxon culture.

Prague is not only blessed with superb architecture, it is atmospherically set within the sweep of the River Vistula and is one of the main cultural centres of Europe. It is the home of such cultural icons as the present Vaclav Havel back through Franz Kafka and Jan Hus to at least the tenth century, when good King Wenceslas looked out on that feast of Stephen.

In fact, the carol about good King Wenceslas was a contributing factor to our visit. The carol is, perhaps, my favourite – up there with the original Austrian version of Silent Night. The carol, if not unique, is rare in that it doesn’t mention the Nativity. The essence of its message is pre Christian – that, as the winter bites, we should take care of the weak and the poor to enable them to survive through to when more food becomes available in the spring.

But this message, belted out in the final verses of carol, was not what made Good King Wenceslas my favourite. As a child it was the earlier verses that I found attractive. The young boy tells the King that because of the cold and dark he can no longer go on. Wenceslas replies that if the boy places his feet in the king’s footsteps he would feel the cold less. Indeed, the boy found that the ground was warm. As an infant, I liked the idea of such protection and comfort and I took the idea literally. Today, I choose to think of it more metaphorically.

So wherever you journey and however you travel may your spirit be warmed – even in your darkest and coldest moments this winter – in the sure knowledge that spring, with all its bounty, will come eventually.