26th of December - Boxing Day, St Stephens Day
26th of December is the 360th day of the year
Boxing Day:
One mythical explanation of Boxing Day’s name is that it refers to our need the day after receiving our presents to deal with the boxes in which they came. The boxes in question were, and in some cases still are, the presents themselves – gifts from ‘master’ to servant, from client to service provider, a custom from at least the 17th century in Britain, though it has declined since the mid-20th. Several possibilities for the origin of the name suggest themselves: the box could have been a poor box, whose contents were distributed among the needy; or a box of foodstuffs and other items given to servants on December 26th for the latter to take home with them, that day one of their rare days of rest. Alternatively they were the money boxes displayed in places of work (as they still are today) in the hope of eliciting tips from the public. We still indeed refer to giving, say, the postman his Christmas box, that office along with refuse collectors one that benefits even now from the tradition - if they are lucky.
St Stephens Day:
The choice of December 26th as the feast day of St Stephen has nothing to do with an event in his life on that day. It was instead, it seems, chosen as a day of huge significance – the day after Christmas Day, when Christ’s birth is celebrated. Stephen was selected for this honour because he was the first Christian martyr, stoned to death by a mob urged on by the future St Paul, then Saul of Tarsus, having been found guilty of blasphemy committed while preaching in a synagogue. Such a significant figure inevitably became the patron saint of many groups, including headache sufferers, casket makers (which makes one wonder about this day being Boxing Day too), and masons.
Choose another day:
Brit Quote: |
|
On this day: |