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Boxing Day

Boxing Day is a public holiday in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, as well as many other members of the Commonwealth of Nations. It is based on the tradition of giving gifts to the less fortunate members of society.

It is usually celebrated on 26 December, the day after Christmas Day;, but its associated public holiday can be moved to the next weekday if 26 December is a Saturday or Sunday. The movement of Boxing Day varies between countries.

Origins

Boxing Day is a traditional celebration dating back to the Middle Ages, of which the primary practice is the giving of gifts to employees or to people in a lower social class. The name has numerous folk etymologies.

Christmas box

A Christmas box is, in English tradition, a clay box used in artisan shops. Apprentices, masters, visitors, customers, and others would put donations of money into the box, like a piggy bank, and then, after Christmas, the box would be shattered and all the contents shared among the workers of the shop. Thus, masters and customers could donate bonuses to the workers anonymously, and the employees could average their wages. The habit of breaking the Christmas box lent its name to Boxing Day. The term "Christmas box" now refers generally to a gift or pay bonus given to workers.

"Some boys are rich by birth beyond all wants,

Belov'd by uncles, and kind good old aunts;

When time comes round, a Christmas-box they bear,

And one day makes them rich for all the year." -- John Gay, Trivia (1716), Canto II, 182-6.

The Oxford English Dictionary attributes it to the Christmas box; the verb box meaning: "To give a Christmas-box (colloq.); hence the term boxing-day." The date coincides with the Feast of St. Stephen.

It was the day when people would give a present or Christmas box to those who had worked for them throughout the year.
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.

Folk etymologies

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. On 26th December, after all the Christmas parties, the lord of the manor would give practical goods such as cloth, grains, and tools to the serfs who lived on his land. Each family would receive a box full of such goods, hence "Boxing Day. " According to this tradition, the lord of the manor did not volunteer, but was obliged to supply these gifts.
In churches, it was traditional to open the church's donation box on Christmas Day, and the money inside 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. See Frazer's Golden Bough.

Evidence can also be found in songs such as The Cutty Wren:

Where are you going ? said Milder to Malder,

Oh where are you going ? said Fessel to Foe,

I'm going to hunt the cutty wren said Milder to Malder,

I'm going to hunt the cutty wren said John the Rednose.

And what will you do wi' it ? said Milder to Malder,

And what will you do wi' it ? said Fessel to Foe,

I'll put it in a box said Milder to Malder,

I'll put it in a box said John the Rednose.

Because the staff had to work on such an important day as Christmas by serving the master of the house and his family, they were given the following day off. As servants were kept away from their own families to work on a traditional religious holiday and were not 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.

Date

In the countries that observe this holiday, 26 December is commonly referred to as Boxing Day no matter what day of the week it occurs. However, in some countries, fixed-date holidays falling on Saturday or Sunday are often observed on the next weekday.

If Boxing Day falls on a Saturday, then Monday 28 December is declared a public holiday. In the United Kingdom and some other countries this is accomplished by Royal Proclamation.

If Boxing Day falls on a Sunday, then in countries where it is a public holiday the Statutory Holiday is moved to Monday 27 December. In that event, Christmas Day would be on a Saturday, so Tuesday 28 December would be declared a holiday in lieu, that being the next available working day - thus the Boxing Day holiday occurs before the substitute Christmas holiday.

If Christmas Day falls on a Sunday, then Boxing Day is on Monday 26 December, and no Royal Proclamation is required. In such a circumstance, a 'substitute bank holiday in lieu of Christmas Day' is declared for Tuesday 27 December; again with the Boxing Day holiday occurring before the substitute Christmas holiday.

Although the same legislation—the Bank Holidays Act 1871—originally established the Bank Holidays throughout the United Kingdom, the holiday after Christmas was defined as Boxing Day in England and Wales, and the feast day of St. Stephen's Day which is celebrated by the western church is fixed as the 26 December in Northern Ireland, though the name "Boxing Day" is usually used there also.

While Boxing Day is actually on 26 December, many retailers who hold Boxing Day Sales will run the sales for several days after 26 December - often up to New Year's Eve.

Observance by country

Boxing Day is a holiday of particularly British origin, but in many other countries worldwide, 26 December is also a holiday under various names. St. Stephen's Day also falls on 26 December in the Western Church.

Australia and New Zealand

Boxing Day is a day when stores launch one of the year's biggest sales. Boxing Day has become so important for retailers that they often extend it to New Year's Eve. Some Australian states—including New South Wales—are tightening restrictions on Boxing Day retail trading, deferring the post-Christmas sales to 27 December.

Boxing Day is not officially observed in South Australia; instead a public holiday called Proclamation Day is observed on what would have been the next working day after Christmas. However, it is still referred to as Boxing Day.

In Australia, Boxing Day has become a significant sporting day (similar to ANZAC Day celebrations). In Melbourne the Boxing Day Test Match is played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, often before the largest single day crowd of the Australian cricket season. In Sydney, the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race starts on Boxing Day.

Canada

In Canada, Boxing Day is observed as a holiday, except in some cases for those in the retail business. Boxing Day and the days immediately following are when many retail stores sell their Christmas and retired model products by holding clearance sales. Some shoppers will line up for hours at night sometimes before midnight and after midnight on December 26 for retailers to open their doors. Except in Quebec, retailers often open their stores earlier than usual, such as 6 am or 7 am. Many retail companies internally refer to the sales week after Christmas as the "thirteenth month" or Boxing Week and over the last couple of years have actually changed the name from the "Boxing Day sale" to the "Boxing Week Sale". It is similar to Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, in the United States. Boxing Day 2005 was the single largest economic transaction day ever in the history of Canadian commerce according to Visa. Individual big box stores can even gross over CAD$1,000,000 on one single Boxing Day.

As an exception, most retail stores are not permitted to open on Boxing Day in Atlantic Canada, nor in some Ontario communities. The Nova Scotia government eliminated its ban on Boxing Day openings in 2006; however, most retailers voluntarily remained closed. The ban was reinstated in 2007. In these areas, most stores offer the same specials on December 27 that they would offer elsewhere on the 26th. This distinction is not well known in central and western Canada.

In Alberta, Boxing Day is not recognized as a statutory holiday. Alberta employment lists Boxing Day along with Easter Monday and Alberta Heritage Day as optional holidays. Employers are not required to give holiday pay or time off but many choose to do so.

From a sporting perspective, Boxing Day in Canada has many implications. It is usually on Boxing Day when the IIHF begins the World Junior Hockey Championship. This is a significant event for Canada and Hockey Canada which have done extremely well at this particular international event. Boxing Day is also the start of another international hockey tournament: The Spengler Cup. This tournament, usually played in Davos, Switzerland, along with the World Juniors, are aired on the two big sports networks in Canada, TSN and Rogers Sportsnet.

South Africa

In South Africa, and for other countries Boxing Day is known in the official calendar as Day of Goodwill. It is a day on which food, left over from Christmas Day, is 'boxed', (in picnic baskets, bags, cake tins, etc.) and family and friends head to the beach or any other place of relaxation to enjoy these left-overs. Food is shared and enjoyed together in this way. With the advent of the new political dispensation, this day was changed to 'Day of Goodwill' to symbolise sharing and togetherness.

United Kingdom

It is common to spend the day with family members or friends as a sort of 'second' Christmas Day, where presents may be exchanged, the left-overs of the previous day are eaten or another family meal is prepared in celebration.

Boxing Day is a day when stores launch one of the year's biggest sales periods. Boxing Day has become so important for retailers that they often extend it into a "Boxing Week".

Boxing Day in the UK is traditionally a day for sporting activity, originally fox hunting, but as this is now banned (in some parts of the UK, and also to a certain extent - see article), alternative hunts take place. Football, horse racing and Rugby (both codes) are also played. Boxing Day is also the start of the IIHF World Junior Ice Hockey Championship.

List of Boxing Day sporting events:

English, Welsh and Scottish football matches
Boxing Day Dip - in certain UK coastal towns (including Hartlepool, Hastings, Sunderland, Whitby, Tenby and most coastal parts of Cornwall), people wade into the sea on Boxing Day - often in fancy dress, and usually to raise money for a local charity.
Football Matches are played in Northern Ireland
Boxing Matches are normally played on the Sports channels
Derby Magners League rugby matches played in Wales and Scotland
Horse racing meetings take place across the country. The most famous regular Boxing Day meet is the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park in Surrey.
Hunts often take place in England.