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Boxing Day, but not in the USA
Ultimate History Project.com
Cited
'In Ireland it is called Lá an Dreoilín, (The Day of the Wren) or Stephen’s Day. In England it is Boxing Day. On the Isle of Man, it is Laa'l Steaoin (Stephen’s Feast Day). Traditionally celebrated on December 26th, this is a day of customs ancient and modern; strange and ordinary.
As an official holiday, Boxing Day is actually of comparatively recent origin: Queen Victoria included December 26th in the Bank Holidays Act passed by the British Parliament in 1871.
The fact that it became an official holiday (a day when all banks are closed) at a time when the British Empire included Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and Canada explains why it is celebrated in most parts of the British Commonwealth. The Republic of Ireland, which gained its independence from Britain in 1921, continues to celebrate the day as a bank holiday but does not use the term Boxing Day.'
Cited
'The name Boxing Day embodies the confusion surrounding the origins of the holiday. Samuel Pepys hinted at its origins when he recorded his diary entry for December 19th, 1663: “Thence by coach to my shoemaker’s and paid all there, and gave something to the boys’ box against Christmas.”
Almost fifty years later, Jonathan Swift complained,
By the Lord Harry, I shall be undone here with Christmas boxes. The rogues of the coffee-house have raised their tax, every one giving a crown, and I gave mine for shame, besides a great many half-crowns to great men’s porters”.'
Cited
'By the nineteenth century, Boxing Day, rather than Christmas or the days preceding it, became the day on which these tradesmen and in particular, postal workers were given boxed gifts or monetary tips in thanks for their services.'
Cited
'WHY ST. STEPHEN?
At the same time, it is no coincidence that Boxing Day falls on the Feast of St. Stephen. While there are several different saints named Stephen, December 26th is the Feast day of Stephen, Proto-martyr.-- Stephen appears in The Acts of the Apostles as one of seven men named to help ensure that the distribution of alms to widows in the early Christian church is done fairly.
Eventually, Stephen preached a sermon taking the people to task for poor behavior: they responded by stoning him to death. As the first Christian martyr he holds an important place in the church calendar. He is frequently depicted with a stone in one hand and the palm of martyrdom in the other.
Stephen embraced the gospel in opposition to religious leaders in Acts 7
Most importantly however, he is associated with the giving of alms and the locked boxes kept in churches for donations. These boxes were traditionally opened on St. Stephen’s day and the money distributed to the needy.
The connection of December 26th with poor boxes provides another plausible explanation of the term "Boxing Day."'
Cited
Whether through the box used to collect the money or the box used to house the wren, the day had also become inextricably mixed up with Boxing Day.
'However Boxing Day came to be, it has become a holiday of rest, relaxation, and time with family and friends for those who recognize it.
Today, Boxing Day is a day on which sporting events, shopping, and eating a second feast take precedence over giving tips and hunting birds.
Time: December 26, 2013
From this classic American source:
'If you’re looking for something that explains the origins of Boxing Day, well, you’re not going to find it here. The day-after-Christmas holiday is celebrated by most countries in the Commonwealth, but in a what-were-we-doing-again? bout of amnesia, none of them are really sure what they’re celebrating, when it started or why.
The best clue to Boxing Day’s origins can be found in the song “Good King Wenceslas.” According to the Christmas carol, Wenceslas, who was Duke of Bohemia in the early 10th century, was surveying his land on St. Stephen’s Day — Dec. 26 — when he saw a poor man gathering wood in the middle of a snowstorm. Moved, the King gathered up surplus food and wine and carried them through the blizzard to the peasant’s door. The alms-giving tradition has always been closely associated with the Christmas season — hence the canned-food drives and Salvation Army Santas that pepper our neighborhoods during the winter — but King Wenceslas’ good deed came the day after Christmas, when the English poor received most of their charity.'
Cited
'Boxing Day has been a national holiday in England, Wales, Ireland and Canada since 1871. For years in which the holiday falls on a weekend, the celebration is moved to make sure workers still get a day off (except in Canada, where it remains Dec. 26), but since visits to Grandma and other family obligations are fulfilled on Christmas, there isn’t anything left to do on Boxing Day except eat leftovers, drink and watch TV. Just as Americans watch football on Thanksgiving, the Brits have Boxing Day soccer matches and horse races. If they’re particularly wealthy or live in the country, they might even participate in a fox hunt.'
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Yes, I just watched part of an English Premier League, football match, today.
But boxes are taken out in America today, too, even though there was an American Revolution and the United States of America is independent from the United Kingdom.
So these reasonably academic presentations have demonstrated that there is more to Boxing Day than my childhood tradition of taking my empty toy boxes to the trash on December 26.
