2 days after the boxing day and I still have no idea why there was a public holiday. Well, I am not complaining (who would complain for having an extra day off from work?), but just curious to find out. According to WikiPedia, it is a holiday for UK and much of the Commonwealth countries on the 26th of December.
There is much dispute over the true origins of Boxing Day, but one common story of the holiday’s origins is that servants used to receive Christmas gifts from their employers on December 26, after the family celebrations. These were generally called their Christmas boxes. Another story is that this is the day that priests broke open the collection boxes and distributed the money to the poor.
For this year, I did not get a Christmas box from my employer, nor did I deposit a collection box to the church on the Boxing Day. But I still enjoyed my long weekend.
the actual origin of boxing day is b/c of St. Stephen–jus to let you know…..
More than a half century ago I learned that Boxing Day took its name from a practice common amongst London’s gentry, of exercising after Christmas day indulgences, by taking the horse out in Regent’s Park. The canter was a circuit of the riding track called the ring, and the circuit was known as boxing the ring. Because it was done the day after Christmas, the day came to be called Boxing Day.
Was I lied to….?
45 years ago in 1966 my English teacher, Mrs Bowker-Perry told the class Boxing Day originated due to rich folk inviting their guests to holiday with them in their homes over the Christmas season. As there were no refrigerators back then, Christmas leftovers would become spoilt in the extreme summer heat, so the day after Christmas was set aside by the hosts in ordering their servants to pack the leftovers into large boxes and carry them across the grounds to a suitable picnic spot for their guests.
After researching ‘Boxing Day’ I now see that my belief for this long, could not have been possible for if it originated in England around 1601 (long before Australia’s 1770′s scorching summers) the guests could not have picnicked out in the snowy, freezing winters.