Does any1 know why Boxing Day is called Boxing Day??

Question

Some1 told me it's to do with boxing ur old stuff after Xmas, Is this true??

Answer 1

Let me first explain that in Britain Boxing Day is the day after Christmas Day, 26 December, a public holiday that is more correctly called St Stephen’s Day. (Strictly, the public holiday is the first working day after Christmas Day, but the name Boxing Day is always reserved for the 26th.)

We have to go back to the early seventeenth century to find the basis for the name. The term Christmas box appeared about then for an earthenware box, something like a piggy bank, which apprentices took around at Christmas to collect money. When it was full, or the round complete, the box was broken and the money distributed among the company. By the eighteenth century, Christmas box had become a figurative term for any seasonal gratuity. I cannot resist quoting the First Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, which has a splendid lip-curling, drawing-away-of-skirts, how-awful-these-lower-orders-are description of this sense that suggests James Murray, who compiled the entry, had been importuned once too often:

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. These gratuities have traditionally been asked from householders by letter-carriers, policemen, lamp-lighters, scavengers, butchers’ and bakers’ boys, tradesmen’s carmen, etc, and from tradesmen by the servants of households that deal with them, etc. They are thus practically identical with the Christmas-box collected by apprentices from their masters’ customers, except that the name is now given to the individual donation; and hence, vulgarly and in dialect use it is often equivalent to “Christmas present”. Some time after the beginning of the nineteenth century, the word box of Christmas box shifted to refer to the day after Christmas day, on which such gratuities were often requested and on which the original Christmas box was taken round. The first recorded use of Boxing Day for the 26th December is in 1833. By 1853 at the latest it had become a scourge that justified Murray’s later acerbic comments, at least to judge from these comments by Charles Manby Smith in his Curiosities of London Life:

We can hardly close these desultory sketches of Christmas-time without some brief allusion to the day after Christmas, which, through every nook and cranny of the great Babel, is known and recognised as “Boxing Day,”—the day consecrated to baksheesh, when nobody, it would almost seem, is too proud to beg, and when everybody who does not beg is expected to play the almoner. “Tie up the knocker—say you’re sick, you are dead,” is the best advice perhaps that could be given in such cases to any man who has a street-door and a knocker upon it. This custom, seasonal visitors to Britain may be assured, has now died out, though solicitations for Christmas tips continue to some extent, especially from the deliverers of newspapers. Instead, on Boxing Day people now rush to the first post-Christmas sales.

Answer 2

There are many different theories, including "it's when you tidied up the boxes and wrapping paper" and 1 in 10 people believe "it's when boxing matches were held". The real reason is that it was the day when traditionally servants were given the day off - and their masters gave them boxes of gifts and goods.

It was also a good way for the rich to get rid of unwanted gifts...

Answer 3

I wouldn't say boxing is dying, it certainly has declined, but I don't think it's going to get any worse. The best fighters are being produced overseas where there aren't so many other oppurtunuties to lure athletes away from the sweet science, plus America is up it's butt about health concerns, and there aren't enough U.S. bred athletes willing to get their brains beat out long enough to make it as a pro boxer. With that said, there are plenty of good fighters and fight fans still around, and I've thought that boxing has made a bit of a resugance in recent years, with more video games and televised fights than five years ago. The growth of MMA isn't a threat to boxing, but an oppurtunity to ride a wave of renewed public interest in pugilism, just the way that MotoGrandPrix, Indy Car, F1, and other forms of auto-racing have become more spectated in the United States thanks to the insane growth of NASCAR. I don't think boxing will ever outgrow it's current role of niche sport unless there is a new crop of talent in the heavyweight ranks. Boxing has always been most popular in America when there have been skilled, American big men knocking eachother around. There hasn't been an interesting American heavyweight bout since Tyson-Holyfield, and even then, that was five years late

Answer 4

Origins of Boxing Day
There is great dispute over the true origins of Boxing Day. The more common stories include:

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 December 26th, 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.
In Britain many years ago, it was common practice for the servants to carry boxes to their employers when they arrived for their day's work on the day after Christmas. Their employers would then put coins in the boxes as special end-of-year gifts. This can be compared with the modern day concept of Christmas bonuses. The servants carried boxes for the coins, hence the name Boxing Day.
In churches, it was traditional to open the church's donation box on Christmas Day, and the money in the donation box was to be distributed to the poorer or lower class citizens on the next day. In this case, the "box" in "Boxing Day" comes from that one gigantic lockbox in which the donations were left.
In Britain because many servants had to work for their employers on Christmas Day they would instead open their presents (i.e., boxes) the next day, which therefore became known as Boxing Day.
Boxing Day was the day when the wren, the king of birds was captured and put in a box and introduced to each household in the village when he would be asked for a successful year and a good harvest. See Frazer's Golden Bough.
Evidence can also be found in Wassail songs such as:
Where are you going ? said Milder to Malder,
Oh where are you going ? said Fessel to Foe,
I'm going to hunt the cutty wren said Milder to Malder,
I'm going to hunt the cutty wren said John the Rednose.
And what will you do wi' it ? said Milder to Malder,
And what will you do wi' it ? said Fessel to Foe,
I'll put it in a box said Milder to Malder,
I'll put it in a box said John the Rednose.
etc.

Answer 5

In days gone by gifts were given to the servants on boxing day, they came in little boxes and hence it became boxing day, though the actual name of that day is St Stephens day.

Answer 6

Because there are a lot of fights over unsatisfactory presents. ...... No seriously my dad always told us it was because it was a traditional day to go to the boxing match and he and his brother always did this until my dad became a father. Family came first then.

Answer 7

I once asked my nan this question and she told me that boxing day was actually the day you wrapped your presents up to give to people, Christmas day was about Christ and not presents so gifts wernt traditionally given on this day.

So boxing day is so called because you box up your gifts to give to others.

The tradition has changed over time

Answer 8

Its the day that people who had something, gave some of it to those who had nothing; alms for the poor. Good (if long!) answer above. Nothing to do with the wise men or the post Christmas-present fighting etc.

Answer 9

As shops box the items on this day.

Answer 10

300-400 years ago it was the practice for people to go to the fields outside of towns and watch boxing matches, even today there are a number of sports done on the 26th

Answer 11

Its because of all the empty boxes that are left over from xmas day.