Boxing Day

Carol Ann · Post by **Carol Ann** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 9:10 am

I want to wish all my sister up in Canada a Happy Boxing Day.

SilverLady(SO) · Post by **SilverLady(SO)** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 9:32 am

. . . as well as all our sisters in the UK, too!!

Happy Boxing Day, Ladies!!

- SL and Virginia

KathyB · Post by **KathyB** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 6:15 pm

I've just never understood what pugilistic competition has to do with the holidays....

Cathii · Post by **Cathii** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 8:36 pm

Zippy wrote:I've just never understood what pugilistic competition has to do with the holidays....

Niether do I, especially since here in Australia we celebrate Boxing Day by playing Cricket! Maybe Cricket used to be a much more violent sport than it is now????

This is what I have always understood boxing day to be:

In feudal times, Christmas was a reason for a gathering of extended families. All the serfs would gather their families in the manor of their lord, which made it easier for the lord of the estate to hand out annual stipends to the serfs. After all the Christmas parties on 26 December, the lord of the estate would give practical goods such as cloth, grains, and tools to the serfs who lived on his land. Each family would get a box full of such goods the day after Christmas. Under this explanation, there was nothing voluntary about this transaction; the lord of the manor was obliged to supply these goods. Because of the boxes being given out, the day was called Boxing Day.

BUT it appears that Wikipedia has a few different versions of what it might have originated from. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_day

CJ · Post by CJ » Wed Dec 27, 2006 8:42 am

Hmmm... and here I thought Boxing Day was that special occasion where everyone puts all those gifts they didn't really want back in their boxes and returned them to the store for a refund or an exchange.

I spent an hour and a half at Future Shop yesterday: 45 minutes waiting in line to pick up a portable DVD player and 45 minutes in line at the cash register in order to pay for it. I'm not counting the ten minutes it took me to get in the store and the ten minutes it took me to get out.

Crazy.

Thanks for the good wishes, Carol Ann. It was good to have the 26th off work, as well.

Love,
CJ