Happy Boxing Day
Boxing Day is a public holiday observed in many Commonwealth countries on 26 December. In many European countries it is also a holiday, called St Stephen's Day or the Second Day of Christmas. Depending on its origin, it may have traditionally been strictly defined as the first weekday after Christmas. However over the past few decades, Boxing Day has been almost universally accepted as the 26th December, although its associated public holiday may fall on a different day.
[While there are many theories as to the its origins,] all seem to indicate that the original tradition that lead to what we know now as Boxing Day may have been to maintain society's class structure. It was a one-way gift-giving practice, where gifts flowed from a higher class of society to the lower classes (the serfs, the poorer people, etc). An exchange of gifts would indicate equality between the giver and the receiver, which is what Boxing Day may originally have been intended to fight against.
Alternatively, some have proposed that "Boxing Day" may have been when all the Christmas decorations went back in their boxes to await next year's festivities. This seems less likely, however, when we consider the known age of the term "Boxing Day", which predates the modern decorating obsession by several centuries.
posted by Fergie @ 12/26/2005 08:22:00 AM
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