I always thought Boxing Day was ‘endless sport on the tv & eating the leftovers? and for me reading.
How wrong I was?
Boxing Day got its name when Queen Victoria was on the throne in the 1800s and has nothing to do with the sport of boxing.
The name comes from a time when the rich used to box up gifts to give to the poor.
The day also has religious connections and is celebrated as Saint Stephen's Day in Ireland and the Catalonia region of Spain.
In some European countries - such as Hungary, Germany, Poland, and the Netherlands - Boxing Day is celebrated as a second Christmas Day.
Collection money
Churches also played a part in the creation of Boxing Day. Through the year they would take money from churchgoers in the form of a collection and hand it out at Christmas.
Many of them stored the collection money in a box, which they opened on Christmas Day. The money was then handed out to the poor the next day - on Boxing Day.
Today, those boxes aren't as popular. However some people leave out extra money for people like paper boys and girls in the weeks before Christmas, and call it a Christmas box.
Boxing Day was traditionally a day off for servants - a day when they received a special Christmas box from their masters.
The servants would also go home on Boxing Day to give Christmas boxes to their families.
2024 I begin my 3rd Year…
I have absolutely loved and embraced this challenge, I feel incredibly grateful to have discovered 365 when I was learning...
Interesting narrative as well