2006-12-26 12:52:48 · 12 answers · asked by Panther K 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Holidays ➔ St. Patrick's Day
Boxing day, was when the master of the household gave gift boxes to his staff or servants. The reason I use his, is because traditionally men ran the house or if the male died, a male heir was placed in charge of the monies, and estate.
2006-12-26 12:56:46 · answer #1 · answered by L R 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
There are three main 'reasons', just which is the "right" one is hard to determine.
1) "Alms boxes", containing money donated for the poor were traditonally cleared around major feast days (the Queen still gives "Maundy Money" on the Thursday before Easter).
2) "The Lady of the House" would give her female servants 'boxes' on the day, having had them working all the day before! The "Master of the House" did the same for the men staff.
3) Servants - mainly the female ones - were given the day off to visit their parents and take home their boxes and (in some instances) left-over food, which would be better quality than most of the parents ate.
Since giving out alms was almost 'regular', it is generally felt it is some combination of the last two (which aren't really that different) which gave rise to calling the day "Boxing" Day
2006-12-26 13:09:02 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The day after Christmas Day is known as Boxing Day, after the tradition of opening the alms boxes placed in churches
over the Christmas season. The contents were distributed amongst the poor of the parish. December 26 is also known
as the Feast of St Stephen. It is often a day of outdoor sports and horse racing and hunting. Only in the last century
however has it become a holiday. By having Christmas Day and Boxing Day as holidays this allowed many people to
take trips but also rejoin family members, which may have encouraged the tradition of families getting together at
Christmas time.
2006-12-26 13:05:26 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The first record of the day after Christmas being called Boxing Day was in the 13th century. The practice was for the alms boxes present in churches to be opened the day after Christmas and the money distributed to the poor.
There are several versions of the 'correct' explanation, but I believe this, as the earliest written reference, is the most likely and it is, of course, a very logical explanation.
Hope that helps,
BobSpain
2006-12-26 13:06:01 · answer #4 · answered by BobSpain 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The british call it boxing day because they box up presents for the poor on that day.
2006-12-29 07:01:32 · answer #5 · answered by gerardnolting 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ahhhh but the Canucks literally fight their way for the crazy sales the have in the shopping malls on the 26th of December. Lineups, lack of parking, lack of good manners lead to the nasty hand gestures and foul language found in the atmosphere of the confined spaces in the shopping malls hence boxing day is literally now "boxing day!"
2006-12-26 13:15:34 · answer #6 · answered by timeless_echo 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I was told that this was the day that the more wealthy British boxed up all their children's old, torn, and outgrown clothes and old and broken toys and gave them to the local Vicar to give out to the parish poor.
Don't know if this is true, just what I was told.
2006-12-26 13:09:48 · answer #7 · answered by Peaches 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I was told that the money put in the churches' donation boxes on xmas was handed out to poor people on boxing day. But there are several stories about it at wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_day
2006-12-26 12:58:31 · answer #8 · answered by Poppy 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nobody knows for sure, but "boxing" refers to "boxes" as in packages, not as in the sport. Several ideas are presented at Wikipedia:
2006-12-26 12:57:15 · answer #9 · answered by The Doctor 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
because there used to boxing matches always held on this day
2006-12-28 09:42:57 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋