Boxing Day – December 26th
by George Beitzel
Many years ago Joan and I were invited to a Boxing Day party by some friends in Sacramento. We arrived at their home to find tables laden with food, drink and music as well as a lot of merry friends, but no pugilists or fisticuffs. On to the rest of the story.
The husband part of our hosts, Clive by name, was a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Great Britain. And that is where boxing day originated back in the middle ages. There are several versions of how the day originated. The story my friend told me was that wealthy landowners gave their servants boxes containing gifts, bonuses and leftover food if their Christmases ran smoothly. Or further back in history the wealthy land owners gave their serfs boxes of leftovers from their Christmas feast in the spirit of the season.
Another, later version, is that nineteenth-century Victorians prepared boxes or gifts for tradesman who had provided good and reliable service for them through out the year. Additionally, December 26th in many Christian faiths is the Feast of Saint Stephen. In the 1800’s churches opened their alms boxes and distributed the contents to the poor.
Today Boxing Day is celebrated in the United Kingdom and many of her former colonies (but not in the U.S.). The spirit of Boxing Day does exists here as we donate food and money to our favorite charities and often give Christmas tips to people who have provided service to us during the year ( barber, housekeeper, pet groomers, etc.).
Happy Boxing Day to our community.
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Thanks for enlightening me about Boxing Day, George. All the time I was growing up in Ontario, Canada, I never heard these stories mentioned. To us, Boxing Day was the day that the stores closed and the store owners boxed up all the Christmas decorations in their stores, changed the Muzak on the sound system, and went back to normal business the following day. Here in the USA the stores stay open and sell all the Christmas merchandise at half price.
That is interesting about the peasants getting the leftovers from their lairds. Who knew?
Joyce B.