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| Boxing Day by George Cruikshank |
As an immigrant to the
U.S. from England, one of the most perplexing questions I’ve had to answer is
“What is Boxing Day?” Growing up in England I never questioned why the day
after Christmas, December 26, is a holiday too. It just is, in
the way we take for granted the traditions we grow up with. I had some vague
notion that it had to do with putting the empty boxes from Christmas gifts away
in the attic, though we never actually did this ourselves. I also associated it
with Dickens, and thought it probably originated in Victorian times. All I knew
for sure is that it had nothing at all to do with the sport of boxing. So I had
to do some research to come up with a satisfactory answer to Americans' questions. It turned out to be true that actual boxes are involved, but not in
the way I thought.
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Alms Box, All Saints Parish,
Moulton, Lincolnshire
attr. Richard Croft |
The origin of the Boxing
Day holiday goes back to early medieval times. Traditionally it was on December 26 that the alms boxes kept in churches to collect money for the
poor were opened and the contents distributed. The word “alms” has a very
ancient history as I discovered by consulting the online
Oxford English Dictionary. Originating with post-classical Latin and the Old English “aelmyssen” the word means “charitable
relief given to the poor or needy usually in the form of money or food."
The probable reason
December 26 was chosen for opening the alms boxes goes back even
further in history. December 26 is the Feast Day of
St. Stephen,
the first Christian martyr, whose story is told in the
Acts of the Apostles. He was appointed one of seven deacons chosen to
distribute food to the poor.
In one
of the earliest literary references to Boxing Day, Samuel Pepys wrote in his
famous diary on December 19, 1663:
"Thence by coach to my shoemaker’s and
paid all there, and gave something to the boys’ box against Christmas."
In the
early 18th century, Jonathan Swift grumbled about the amount of
giving required of him:
“I shall be undone here with Christmas boxes.
The rogues of the coffee-house have raised their tax, every one giving a crown,
and I gave mine for shame, besides a great many half-crowns to great men’s
porters.”
But according
to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first mention of Boxing Day in literature was indeed by Charles Dickens. In
The Pickwick Papers we find the rather
obscure reference: “no man ever talked in poetry ‘cept a
beadle on boxin’ day.”
By Dickens’
time, December 26 had evolved from a day when only the church
distributed alms to a day when the “wealth or rank possessing” gave boxes of
leftover foods and money to their servants. Servants and other lowly workers
were required to work on Christmas Day so Boxing Day became their own traditional
holiday. This led inevitably to complaints by censorious Victorians about the
lower orders drinking and carousing in an unseemly manner!
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Saltersgate Farmers Boxing Day Hunt
attr. David Ward |
Although the sport of boxing itself has nothing to do the day, other sports are traditional on Boxing
Day. In the countryside there are annual fox hunting meets (often accompanied by animal rights protests) and horse racing,
while armchair sportsmen watch soccer matches. The more adventurous participate
in Dips, swimming in the cold sea, sometimes in fancy dress. Modern times have also seen
the rise of the sport of shopping. Boxing Day is the busiest shopping day of
the year in England, with mobs of shoppers stampeding into stores as Americans
do on Black Friday. We can be glad that some Boxing Day traditions have fallen
by the wayside, such as the medieval practice of horse bleeding described in this poem by Thomas Naogeorgus:
Then followeth Saint Stephens day, whereon doth every man
His horses jaunt and course abroad as swiftly as he can
Until they doe extreemely state, and than they let them blood,
For this being done upon this day, they say doth do them good
And keepes them from all maladies and sicknesse through the yeare.
A modern movement to return Boxing Day
to the spirit of St. Stephen encourages charitable giving.
- Charity Watch - A list of top-rated charities that spend
75% or more of their donations on programs.
- Charity Navigator - A star system rating of over 8,000
charities.
- Giving Wisely - This resource from the Maryland
Secretary of State includes a searchable database of charities.
- Montgomery County Volunteer Center - This Montgomery County
Government resource lists local charities and the types of donations they accept.
These books in the MCPL collection include information on Boxing Day:
Whichever tradition you follow, may you enjoy this holiday season!
Rita T.
Labels: History, Holidays
