Boxing Day
I’ve been looking up the origin of Boxing Day, but I have
been unable to find a single definitive meaning. Meanings include …
- It was the day when people would give a present or Christmas ‘box’ to those who have worked for them throughout the year. This is still done in Britain for postmen and paper-boys - though now the ‘box’ is usually given before Christmas, not after.
- In feudal times, Christmas was a reason for a gathering of extended families. All the serfs would gather their families in the manor of their lord, which made it easier for the lord of the estate to hand out annual stipends to the serfs. After all the Christmas parties on 26 December, the lord of the estate would give practical goods such as cloth, grains, and tools to the serfs who lived on his land. Each family would get a box full of such goods the day after Christmas. Under this explanation, there was nothing voluntary about this transaction; the lord of the manor was obliged to supply these goods. Because of the boxes being given out, the day was called Boxing Day.
- In England many years ago, it was common practice for the servants to carry boxes to their employers when they arrived for their day’s work on the day after Christmas. Their employers would then put coins in the boxes as special end-of-year gifts. This can be compared with the modern day concept of Christmas bonuses. The servants carried boxes for the coins, hence the name Boxing Day.
- In churches, it was traditional to open the church’s donation box on Christmas Day, and the money in the donation box was to be distributed to the poorer or lower class citizens on the next day. In this case, the “box” in “Boxing Day” comes from that lockbox in which the donations were left.
- Boxing Day was the day when the wren, the king of birds, was captured and put in a box and introduced to each household in the village when he would be asked for a successful year and a good harvest.
- Because the staff had to work on such an important day as Christmas Day by serving the master of the house and their family, they were given the following day off. Since being kept away from their own families to work on a traditional religious holiday and not being able to celebrate Christmas Dinner, the customary benefit was to “box” up the leftover food from Christmas Day and send it away with the servants and their families. Hence the “boxing” of food became “Boxing Day”.
This was all cribbed from the wikipedia entry, though between my friends we think something between the first and last of those is most likely the truth.
For me, when I am in the UK, the members of my family who live elsewhere often come up for lunch on Boxing Day. In the afternoon I’ll meet with my mates down the pub, probably the Star in the Old Town, sit in front of an open fire and drink and talk all afternoon. Most people have Boxing Day off work, so it is one of the few times when we can all get together like that.
We had some problem explaining Mince Pies to the Americans at a party I was at last night, it was really the mincemeat that was the sticking point. My friend’s mother had made one which was more like a tart of which I had a slice. There was Christmas Pudding too. I was very happy.