What Exactly IS Boxing Day?

Boxing Day– a holiday celebrated on December 26th (the day after Christmas) in Great Britain and a handful of its Commonwealth countries, such as Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.

Of course, the holiday is noted casually in other places around the world, but it’s an official bank (public) holiday in Great Britain and its Commonwealth friends, giving citizens the day after Christmas as an official day ‘off’ as well as the big day itself.

If you’re an American like me or any other nationality that doesn’t typically celebrate Boxing Day as an official holiday, you may be wondering what the heck Boxing Day actually is.

(I definitely wondered for a large part of my young life, with visions of half-naked men bopping back and forth with red gloves punching each other in the cold back alleys of Victorian London…. but it’s not that kind of boxing.)

In its traditional capacity, Boxing Day was celebrated as a day when the wealthy Lords and Ladies of the land would give boxed gifts to their servants, staff, and the poor.

The day was also given as a day off of work for the servants and staff to visit and celebrate the holiday with their own families after working through their employers’ Christmas day events. (The first known use of the term “Boxing Day” in print dates back to 1833, though the idea has been around for much longer.)

Other origins for the name of the holiday exist, including a day for opening and distributing money to the poor from the alms collection boxes at local churches, but this is a loose connection at best.

Today, Boxing Day has evolved into a day of shopping and sport as the extravant service-centric lifestyle of the great estates of England has waned.

December 26 is also the religious feast day of St. Stephen (the patron saint of horses) and around the 18th century, it evolved into a traditional time for fox hunting and horse racing.

By the 19th century, Boxing Day had further morphed into a day for modern professional sporting events such as football (American and British) and rugby.

Boxing Day‘s present-day purpose has also evolved into a day for shopping post-Christmas sales and returning undesired holiday and gift items.

A few American (and British!) people I’ve polled figured Boxing Day was named as a day for ‘boxing up’ all of your unwanted gifts and returning them to stores.

While this shot-in-the-dark definition certainly fits the modern mold for what actually happens on contemporary Boxing Day, its true origins, while still materialistic, carry a kinder, more giving spirit of the classic British Christmas season.

Happy Boxing Day!

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