.............................................isn't a holiday in most parts of the world............so Lucky Us!
Boxing Day became a "thing" around the 1830's and the name comes from the custom of giving "Christmas boxes" to servants and apprentices and the tradesmen who delivered to the house.
December 26th is also St Stephen's day. Stephen was a Hellenistic Jew, appointed by the Apostles as Deacon in the early Christian Church. He was stoned to death around AD 35, and as he was one of the first martyrs he was given the day following Christ's birth as his feast day. Stephen is almost forgotten except for his mention in the carol "Good King Wenceslas". But Wenceslas was a prince in Bohemia in the 10th century and the story in the carol is just fiction. It was probably the practice of giving money to servants or the poor that gave John Mason Neale the idea for the Carol in 1853.
(information mainly from the book 'The English Year 'by Steve Roud)
Thank you for all the Christmas Greetings.
Oh, I was just commenting on Thelma's blog that I didn't know much about Boxing Day and here you are explaining it to me! Thanks, Sue! Enjoy your week!
ReplyDeleteMy old aunts, born in the nineteenth century, referred to all Christmas presents as Christmas boxes! Even a package wrapped in paper was a "box". So getting a bonus on boxing day was a box, even if was folding money.
ReplyDeleteI think the extra day is so nice. I always hated jumping back into ordinary life the day after Christmas.
ReplyDeleteI wish we observed Boxing Day in the US. It seems like a day of grace. Most people here have tossed their tree in the gutter by 5 pm Christmas Day, and all the Las Vegas style lights they put up on Nov 11 (!) are being pulled down. Everything is built up to the one big day, then poof it's all over.
ReplyDeleteI hope you had a lovely Christmas.
ReplyDeleteI usually celebrate Boxing Day even though it isn't a 'thing' here in the states. My children grew up celebrating it and usually I continue on with the tradition - my husband usually takes the day off work.
This year it's different because I'm at my daughter's house. She's working, or supposed to be - though there isn't much for her to do as everyone else has taken time off!