You might have heard of the holiday. While Boxing Day is not a celebrated, or even widely known, holiday in the United States, popular British imports, such as the Harry Potter series, has brought the term into the American vernacular. So, what exactly is this great English holiday?
Boxing Day, also known as St. Stephen's Day, takes place December 26th of each year, though as a public holiday, the day on which the holiday is observed can change in order to assure the public a day off from work, much like our Monday observances of Martin Luther King Day or Presidents Day.
Boxing Day is almost exclusively British, and it most certainly holds its beginnings in British history, but the origins of the holiday's name are debatable. During the times of serfs and lords, Boxing Day would have been the day of gathering when lords would hand out boxes of useful items, such as cloths and tools. Under this theory, Boxing Day would have merely come about as a matter of requirement, instead of good will.
Another possible explanation for the holidays name is that, once upon a time, servants would have carried boxes to jobs with them the day after Christmas, and masters would have put coins into those boxes, in a manner of tipping almost.
Due to the fact that employees of a large manor would have been expected to work on Christmas Day, taking care of their household duties while the owners and guests of the house celebrated the holiday, the servants were given the following day off. It was a common practice that food from the Christmas celebration would be boxed up for the servants and their families, and sent with them for their day after Christmas celebrations, which may be where the term originated.
Another theory of the origin of Boxing Day is more magical. It was thought by some to be the day when the wren was captured in a box, and brought to each house in a village in order for citizens to request a successful harvest and blessed year.
Wherever the holiday originated, and wherever the term came about, historically Boxing Day was a day that people would gift service workers who had worked for them through the year with a Christmas box, or a present. The holiday, while still observed, is not observed in quite the same way it used to be. While it used to uphold the idea of social hierarchy, by relegating the gifting of people of a lower social position with gifts the day after Christmas, most people now gift service workers with gifts before the Christmas holiday.
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