There are many holidays that are celebrated throughout the year that most people are very familiar with, however there are some holidays that are lesser known but just as important to those that celebrate them. One of these is Boxing Day. Boxing Day has been a national holiday in England, Wales, Ireland and Canada since 1871. It is either celebrated on December 26 (always in Canada on the 26th) or it can be celebrated on the weekend that follows Christmas. 

 

Remember the Christmas carol “Good King Wenceslas.” According to the carol, Wenceslas was surveying his land on St. Stephen’s Day, Dec. 26, when he saw a poor man gathering wood in the middle of a snowstorm. Moved, the King gathered up surplus food and wine and carried them through the blizzard to the peasant’s door. King Wenceslas didn’t start Boxing Day, but the Church of England might have.Or could it have been that the day after Christmas was also the traditional day on which the aristocracy distributed presents (boxes) to servants and employees. The servants would then go home and celebrate again the day after Christmas, opening their “boxes” and Boxing Day was born.

 

Either way the stories are good and there is probably a bit of truth in each. Today’s Boxing Day festivities have very little to do with charity. Instead, they revolve around food, football (soccer), visits from friends, food and drinking at the pub. Just as Americans watch football on Thanksgiving, the Brits have Boxing Day soccer matches and horse races. But don’t let us forget the shopping! In the 1980’s shopping became a big part of the day and just as in America we shop ‘til we drop the day after Thanksgiving, the Boxing Day enthusiasts do the same on Dec 26th!

  

So now that you know, you too can celebrate Boxing Day! We, in America, love to celebrate so much that we celebrate St Patrick’s Day even if we aren’t Irish and Cinco de Mayo without a Hispanic background just for the fun of it!