Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Origins of Boxing Day

Starting point is 00:00:00 Every year, primarily in Commonwealth countries, the day after Christmas is a legal holiday. It's a rather odd holiday in that it doesn't celebrate anything or anyone in particular. Most people who celebrate the day have no clue what the origins of the holiday are, and many of the people who think they know the origins of the day are wrong. Learn more about Boxing Day and how the day after Christmas became a holiday on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? throughline is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night and how it shaped the world now.

Starting point is 00:00:55 Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. Growing up as an American, Boxing Day just wasn't a thing. When I first heard about Boxing Day, I had no clue what boxing had to do with it. Did somebody really dedicate an entire day to punching each other in the middle of the ring? And if there was a boxing day, was there a wrestling day? And by the way, if so, that would be awesome. An entire day devoted to celebrating pile drivers and figure four leg locks is something that I could really get behind. It would be the one day a year you could super kick your best friend through a play glass window and it would be socially acceptable.

Starting point is 00:01:35 And Luchador Mass would be totally in fashion. But I digress. As I began traveling the world, I was able to spend several boxing days in place. that actually celebrated Boxing Day. I would ask people who celebrated Boxing Day, usually Brits, Canadians, or Australians exactly what Boxing Day was about. The answers I got were all over the place.

Starting point is 00:01:56 One common explanation was that Boxing Day was the day that Christmas decorations were put back into boxes. And at first glance, this seemed reasonable. There were boxes involved, and it had something to do with Christmas, so it appeared to check out. However, I got different explanations from different people. Another explanation I received was that Boxing Day had to do with people putting gifts they received back into boxes so they could be returned.

Starting point is 00:02:21 That didn't seem quite as legit as it seemed like a rather modern development. I even had one British guy tell me that Boxing Day was, in fact, named after the sweet science of pugilism. This explanation, despite my initial thoughts as a kid, when I first heard of the holiday, didn't make any sense. So I went on a quest to discover the true meaning of Boxing Day. While Boxing Day itself isn't a religious holiday, December 26th has a religious feast day which is associated with it. Traditionally, December 26 was the Feast of St. Stephen. St. Stephen is considered to be the first Christian martyr who was stoned to death after being tried for blasphemy sometime around the year 34. As it came immediately after Christmas, it was considered the traditional second of the 12 days of Christmas. St. Stephen's Day even makes the occasional appearance in Christmas carols. In the song, A Good

Starting point is 00:03:13 King Wensseless, the first line is, good King Wencesloss looked out on the Feast of Stephen, which is December 26th. So, okay, December 26 has some sort of meaning that medieval people ascribe to it, but that still doesn't have anything to do with boxes. The truth, unlike many holidays with ancient or even medieval origins, is that Boxing Day is a relatively recent invention. The Oxford English Dictionary reports that the first usage of the word Boxing Day in print, only dates back to 1833. Boxing Day then became popularized during the reign of Queen Victoria. The term refers to a Christmas box. Okay, then, what is a Christmas box? The origin of the Christmas box probably dates back to the 18th century or earlier. I'll actually let the Oxford English

Starting point is 00:04:04 Dictionary describe it. According to the OED, a Christmas box is, quote, a present or gratuity given at Christmas. In Great Britain, usually confined to gratuities given to those who are supposed to have a vague claim upon the donor for services rendered to him as one of the general public, by whom they are employed and paid, or as a customer of their legal employer, the undefined theory being that, as they have done offices for this person, for which he has not directly paid them, some direct acknowledgement is becoming at Christmas." End quote. So, a Christmas box was basically a tip given after Christmas. So why is this associated with Christmas and not some other holiday like New Year's Day? Victorian England was an extremely economically stratified society. Very wealthy people could have

Starting point is 00:04:53 had dozens of people working for them on their house staff. Even middle class people could hire a housekeeper. If you had a house staff, they probably would have to work on Christmas Day while your family had Christmas festivities. The day after Christmas, your servants would then have the day off so they could spend time with their families. The staff would be given boxes with money, gifts, and often leftovers from the Christmas meal. This tradition was eventually extended to other tradespeople and employees as a sort of end-of-the-year bonus. There are other theories on the origin of Christmas boxes. Another theory which is similar is that the boxes referred to alms that were left at churches during the Advent season. The day after Christmas, the boxes would be given to the poor, hence

Starting point is 00:05:37 boxing day. It's entirely possible. that both theories are true and that the day of giving Christmas boxes to one group was later extended to the other group. Either way, it involved boxes with gifts being given to people the day after Christmas. Over time, economic conditions in Britain changed and the tradition of Christmas boxes died out. However, boxing day as a holiday in its own right stuck around. People still acknowledged the day as a day off, even if the original purpose behind it disappeared. It eventually became an official bank holiday and part of the calendar. As the British set out and colonized an enormous chunk of the world, they took the tradition of Boxing Day with them. Boxing Day is

Starting point is 00:06:18 an official holiday in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Nigeria, the former British colonies in the Caribbean, and Singapore. South Africa keeps the day as a holiday, but they now call it the day of goodwill. And likewise, many other European countries still have December 26th as a holiday, but they just refer to it as St. Stephen's Day. The fact that it's a holiday really has more to do with its proximity to Christmas than it does with the importance of St. Stephen on the religious calendar. And in many countries, they just informally call it second Christmas. Today, Boxing Day is really just an excuse to have another day off. In the UK, it's become a popular day for sporting matches like football slash soccer and cricket.

Starting point is 00:06:59 It has also become a huge shopping day. It has often been compared to Black Friday in the United States. There are Boxing Day sales and most stores are open. In fact, for many countries with Boxing Day on the calendar, it's the biggest shopping day of the year, making the Black Friday comparison rather apt. While Boxing Day is usually held on December 26th, it is often moved to December 27th if Christmas falls on a Saturday. Believe it or not, there is a small movement to adopt Boxing Day as a thing in the United

Starting point is 00:07:29 States. To be fair, the vast majority of Americans still have no clue what Boxing Day is. However, there is a great deal of demand by retail outlets for, yet another shopping day, and Boxing Day fits the bill. It's usually just called an after-Christmas sale currently, but there have been a few cases of people just actually calling it Boxing Day. And believe it or not, Boxing Day is a state holiday in Massachusetts. They don't call it Boxing Day in the calendar, but it's on the calendar. For those of you who didn't know anything about Boxing Day, well, now you know. And for those of you who do celebrate Boxing Day, I hope you enjoy your

Starting point is 00:08:07 Boxing Day celebrations of going to the mall and watching sports on TV. And also remember to sing your Boxing Day carols, trim the Boxing Day tree, and eat the traditional boxing day sandwiches. And have a very happy Boxing Day. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. I just want to thank everyone, including the show's producers, who support the show over on Patreon. If you'd like to support the show, just head over to Patreon.com, which is currently the only. place where you can get show merchandise. Also, if you want to talk to other listeners about the show,

Starting point is 00:08:45 head over to our Facebook group or Discord server, both of which have links in the show notes.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Origins of Boxing Day

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