What do you know about Boxing Day, other than the fact it's a public holiday, and a good time to get a bargain?
Have you ever wondered where the name comes from, or what the day has meant over the centuries?
As it turns out, the exact roots are unknown. But there are a few theories, stretching all the way back to the Middle Ages.
A day for servants
Why's Boxing Day celebrated the day after Christmas?
It originated in the United Kingdom and one theory is that it was originally a day to compensate servants.
"In the Middle Ages and the early modern era, the servants all had to work on Christmas Day," explains Carole Cusack, a professor of religious studies at the University of Sydney.
"Their servitude meant that they had to put the needs of the people they worked for first."
Boxing Day became "their time to spend with their family".
Clues to the origin of the "boxing" name can be found in the Oxford English Dictionary which referred to a day "on which post-men, errand-boys, and servants of various kinds expect to receive a Christmas-box".
A "Christmas box" was an old way of referring to giving money to servants around Christmas time.
The Macquarie Dictionary also describes the day as traditionally being when "Christmas boxes or presents were given to employees".
Constant Mews, the director of the Centre for Religious studies at Monash University, grew up in South London and recalls this old tradition continuing into his childhood.
"In England when the rubbish men came around on Boxing Day you would give them something," he recalls.
"It was about giving gifts to others, and it's a charitable activity."
Church boxes and 'December madness'
The second theory also relates to charity.
"During the season of Advent, the Ecclesiastical season prior to Christmas, there was a box in the Parish church into which people put money for the poor," Professor Cusack says.
"After Christmas was over it was then opened up and the money or the gifts that people had put into it was given to the poorest people in the Parish."
December 26 was also the Feast of Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr and a figure known for acts of charity.
It's said Stephen was a Greek Jew who lived in Jerusalem and converted to Christianity. He was accused of blasphemy and later stoned to death after being made to stand trial.
"I suspect that it was placed there deliberately after Christmas as a sobering reminder," Professor Mews says.
"I think part of the history of Boxing Day was to remember it's not just about the cosy feeling of the birth of the saviour, but it's also a memory that Christian life can involve persecution and martyrdom.
"This was what that role of that feast of Saint Stephen was serving to remind us of."
Professor Mews says Boxing Day also has links to the ancient Romans, as far back as 133 BCE.
In honour of the god Saturn, the Romans took part in a week-long December festival called Saturnalia, which involved feasting, parties, drinking and giving gifts.
"They had a December madness — they spoke about the December freedom — when the customary restraints of society were loosened," Professor Mews says.
Certain traditions from Saturnalia such as gift giving, lighting candles, and decorating houses in green wreaths endure as Christian festivities.
A good luck charm
In the early modern era, the charity 'Christmas boxes' were also regarded as a good luck charm.
Professor Cusack says it was the "great age of exploration", the time when Columbus made it to the New World in 1492.
"The Christmas box was generally just a small wooden box, and it was placed on each ship while it was still in port before it set out to do its voyage of trade or voyage of exploration," she says.
"It was blessed by a priest or minister, and crewman who wanted to pray for a safe return would put a small amount of money into the box."
The box was then sealed up and kept on board for the rest of the voyage.
"If the ship came home safely, the box was then handed to the priest or minister who had blessed it in return for further prayers or service of thanksgiving for them all having been spared," Professor Cusack says.
They kept the box until Christmas and shared its content with the poor on Boxing Day.
'A rich person's playground'
By the 1700s, Boxing Day customs had begun to take a different turn.
"When you get into the 18th century, the century of enlightenment, where belief in Christianity starts to waiver a bit, and certainly the control of the church becomes recast, Boxing Day becomes the day for the fox hunt," Professor Cusack says.
"By that stage it's become a day off where people can relax. Christmas, the kind of religious bit, is over. Everybody is enjoying themselves, and one way the upper class deemed to enjoy themselves was to hunt.
"So the idea that Boxing Day is a holiday for people to enjoy themselves, has become much more common."
Boxing Day was officially recognised as a bank holiday in England, Northern Ireland and Wales in 1871 after Queen Victoria included it in the Bank Holidays Act.
The bank holiday is still embraced by some countries that fall under the British Commonwealth, including Australia.
"If you think about Australia now, the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race starts on Boxing Day — and that again is a rich person's playground, a bit like the fox hunting tradition," Professor Cusack says.
And then you have the Boxing Day sales.
"The reality is is that Christmas presents have become a big part of the commercial cycle, and of course, now when we think of Boxing Day we think of sales," Professor Mews says.
"We've actually lost that sense of the obligation to remember others."
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2020-12-25 19:30:00Z
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