Put Tip or Request Here
Origins: Few Americans have any inkling that there even is such a thing as Boxing Day, let alone what the reason might be for a holiday so named. However, before one concludes we're about to rag on Americentric attitudes towards other cultures, we should quickly point out that even though 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 26 of December off.
Despite the lively images suggested by the name, it has nothing to do with pugilistic expositions between tanked-up family members who have dearly been looking forward to taking a round out of each other for the past year. Likewise, it does not gain its name from the overpowering need to rid the house of an excess of wrappings and mountains of now useless cardboard boxes the day after St. Nick arrived to turn a perfectly charming and orderly home into a maelstrom of discarded tissue paper. The name also has nothing to do with returning unwanted gifts to the stores they came from, hence its common association with hauling about boxes on the day after Christmas.
The holiday's roots can be traced to Britain, where Boxing Day is also known as St. Stephen's Day. Reduced to the simplest essence, its origins are found in a long-ago practice of giving cash or durable goods to those of the lower classes. Gifts among equals were exchanged on or before Christmas Day, but beneficences to those less fortunate were bestowed the day after. And that's about as much as anyone can definitively say about its origin because once you step beyond that point, it's straight into the quagmire of debated claims and dueling folklorists. Which, by the way, is what we're about to muddy our boots with.
Although 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 various times, the following "origins" have been loudly asserted as the correct one:* Centuries ago, ordinary members of the merchant class gave boxes of food and fruit to trades people and servants the day after Christmas in an ancient form of Yuletide tip. These gifts were an expression of gratitude to those who worked for them, in much the same way that one now tips the paperboy an extra $20 at Christmastime or slips the building's superintendent a bottle of fine whisky. Those long-ago gifts were done up in boxes, hence the day coming to be known as "Boxing Day."*
Christmas celebrations in the old days entailed bringing everyone together from all over a large estate, thus creating one of the rare instances when everyone could be found in one place at one time. This gathering of his extended family, so to speak, presented the lord of the manor with a ready-made opportunity to easily hand out that year's stipend of necessities. Thus, the day after Christmas, after all the partying was over and it was almost time to go back to far-flung homesteads, serfs were presented with their annual allotment of practical goods. Who got what was determined by the status of the worker and his relative family size, with spun cloth, leather goods, durable food supplies, tools, and whatnot being handed out. Under this explanation, there was nothing voluntary about this transaction; the lord of the manor was obligated to supply these goods. The items were chucked into boxes, one box for each family, to make carrying away the results of this annual restocking easier; thus, the day came to be known as "Boxing Day."*
Many years ago, on the day after Christmas, servants in Britain carried boxes to their masters when they arrived for the day's work. It was a tradition that on this day all employers would put coins in the boxes, as a special end-of-the-year gift. In a closely-related version of this explanation, apprentices and servants would on that day get to smash open small earthenware boxes left for them by their masters. These boxes would house small sums of money specifically left for them.
This dual-versioned theory melds the two previous ones together into a new form; namely, the employer who was obligated to hand out something on Boxing Day, but this time to recipients who were not working the land for him and thus were not dependent on him for all they wore and ate. The "box" thus becomes something beyond ordinary compensation (in a way goods to landed serfs was not), yet it's also not a gift in that there's nothing voluntary about it. Under this theory, the boxes are an early form of Christmas bonus, something employees see as their entitlement.* Boxes in churches for seasonal donations to the needy were opened on Christmas Day, and the contents distributed by the clergy the following day.
Whichever theory one chooses to back, the one thread common to all is the theme of one-way provision to those not inhabiting the same social level. As mentioned previously, equals exchanged gifts on Christmas Day or before, but lessers (be they trades people, employees, servants, serfs, or the generic "poor") received their "boxes" on the day after. It is to be noted that the social superiors did not receive anything back from those they played Lord Bountiful to: a gift in return would have been seen as a presumptuous act of laying claim to equality, the very thing Boxing Day was an entrenched bastion against. Boxing Day was, after all, about preserving class lines. April (12/27/2000)
In Old England Boxing Day used to be the day the Gentry boxed up their leftover food and it was distributed to the poor. That's what I was taught by my English Father. - Pat (12/27/2000)
Boxing Day is traditionally the day when the servants were given a Christmas party and gifts, being served by the gentry. James (12/27/2000)
HOLIDAYS & EVENTS - Boxing Day, Junkanoo CANADA: BOXING DAY "The origins of Boxing Day are uncertain. Some sources say this was formerly a day on which lords and ladies gave Christmas boxes to servants. Others suggest this is the day when the alms boxes were opened and the money was distributed among the poor. Today in Canada, this public holiday is a time to spend with family and friends." Joseph (12/27/2000)
Hi -- Boxing Day is an English custom dating back to the time when well-off people had servants. The day after Christmas, the servants would come to the house and be given gifts or food for themselves and their families. Nancy (12/27/2000)
When I was living in Canada back in the early 70s, I was working in an office where none of the employees knew what Boxing Day was all about. Yes, everyone got the day off but didn't know why. I went to the library and looked it up in the encyclopedia so that I would know. Using my very old set of "World Book" encyclopedias, this is what it says: "Boxing Day is a holiday in Great Britain and in some Canadian provinces [probably all but Quebec]. It is celebrated on December 26 (or on December 27 if December 26 falls on a Sunday). Boxing Day may have originated in the custom of giving Christmas boxes [gifts] to tradesmen, servants, and minor public officials, such as postmen and lamplighters. Many families now give money instead of boxes, and Boxing Day is part of the legal Christmas holidays. The day, also known as St. Stephen's Day, is traditionally the time for a kind of theatrical called a Christmas pantomine." [I have never heard of this.] Betty (12/27/2000)
Hi- I'm not sure if this is true, but I have heard that December 26th is called Boxing Day because it was on that day that the churches opened the alms boxes and distributed the contents to the poor. Colleen from Canada (12/28/2000)
I used to work with someone who was from Canada, which is where the holiday originated. She said it's the day that everyone boxes up their leftover Christmas dinner and takes it to friends and neighbors to share with them. Theresa (12/28/2000)
A Canadian friend told me that it's the day after Christmas when the poor and working class people visit the homes of the wealthy to collect lovely leftovers from rich people's dinners. Often gifts were included with dinner goodies, all placed in boxes -- thus the name of the holiday. (Why not just call it Box Day, so we won't confuse it with pugilists in the boxing ring?) Cheers -- LaVonne *:D (01/03/2001)
Add your voice! Click below to comment. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
