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Originally, Boxing Day - the first weekday after Christmas Day - was observed as a holiday "on which postmen, errand boys, and servants of various kinds received a Christmas box of contributions from those whom they serve" - Charles Dickens
Boxing Day began in England, in the middle of the nineteenth century, under Queen Victoria. Boxing Day, was a way for the upper class to give gifts of cash, or other goods, to those of the lower classes. Boxing Day, coincides with St. Stephen's Day or Wren's Day, one of the nicest traditions of the holiday season. This ancient celebration was modernized when the Victorian gentry set a day aside for servants to visit home and to give gifts and money to the poor. This spirit of sharing continues today, with some sporting events and shopping added. |
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Boxing Day is celebrated in Great Britain and in most areas settled by the English (the U.S. is the major exception), including Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. However, Boxing Day is generally considered to be the first weekday following Christmas. If Christmas falls on a Friday or a weekend then Boxing Day is the following Monday. Boxing Day is just one of the British bank holidays recognized since 1871 that are observed by banks, government offices, and the post office.
Boxing Day is celebrated in Australia, Britain, New Zealand, and Canada, not all that many in those countries have much of a notion as to why they get the 26th of December off. Boxing Day might well be a statutory holiday in some of those lands, but it's not a well understood one. Though there is general agreement that the holiday is of British origin and it has to do with giving presents to the less fortunate, there is still dispute as to how the name came about or precisely what unequal relationship is being recognized.
At times, the various origins have been loudly asserted. Historians say the holiday developed because servants were required to work on Christmas Day, but took the following day off. As servants prepared to leave to visit their families, their employers would present them with Christmas boxes.
Boxes in churches for seasonal donations to the needy were opened on Christmas Day, and the contents distributed by the clergy the following day. The contents of this alms box originated with the ordinary folks in the parish who were thus under no direct obligation to provide anything at all and were certainly not tied to the recipients by a employer/employee relationship. In this case, the box in Boxing Day comes from that one gigantic lockbox the donations were left in.
Whichever theory one chooses to back, the very thing Boxing Day was an entrenched bastion against, a gift in return from the less priviliged to the social superiors would have been seen as a presumptuous act of laying claim to equality. Equals exchanged gifts on Christmas Day or before, but lessers (be they tradespeople, employees, servants, serfs, or the generic poor) received their 'boxes' on the day after.
Boxing Day was, after all, about preserving class lines. |
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