Boxing Day

I'm once again joining Yvonne, aka Meggymay, our host this month at Art Journal Journey.  She wants us to use Words and Numbers in our art.

It's Boxing Day.   My friend Cindy told me about Boxing Day years ago, so now I like to celebrate it along with other countries.  If you are a visitor from Great Britain, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand, you are familiar with Boxing Day.   I was not!  Since I knew nothing about it, I decided to learn more about its roots. 

Just to let everyone who doesn't live in one of these countries know, Boxing Day has been a national holiday in England, Wales, Ireland, and Canada since 1871.  It's a national holiday in Austria, too.  It is also celebrated in other countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Holland, Germany, and the Bahamas.  In the U.S. and Canada, it is often a day of shopping for deep discounts, especially high dollar items.

So what is Boxing Day?  First, it does NOT mean the day to get rid of your leftover Christmas boxes, nor does it mean it's the day to duke it out with family who refuse to leave, nor does it mean it's a day to return boxes of unwanted gifts to the store for a refund or something you truly desire.  Instead, in the US (and even Canada), it is a day of deep discounts, usually up to 50% - 75% off most items. 

But that doesn't really explain Boxing Day, or its origins.
                     
The remainder of this post, including the celebrations and the beliefs are from a post I wrote last year.

Boxing Day roots can be traced to Britain, where it's also known as St. Stephen's Day.  Think of the song "Good King Wenceslas" where he saw a poor man in the snow, on the "Feast of Stephen."

In Austria, they celebrate St Stephen's Day as an official holiday. St Steven, who was believed to be the first Christian martyr, was stoned to death in 33 AD.

Just as we Americans watch football on Thanksgiving, my British friends have Boxing Day rugby or soccer matches (what many British refer to as football) and horse races.

The Irish still refer to the holiday as St. Stephen's Day, and they have their own tradition called hunting the wren, in which boys fasten a fake wren to a pole and parade it through town. Also known as Wren Day, the tradition supposedly dates to 1601, to the Battle of Kinsale.

In Holland, some collection boxes were made out of earthenware pottery and were shaped like pigs.  This may be where the term "Piggy Bank" originated.

An old tradition in Germany suggests that horses were ridden inside the church during the St. Stephen's Day service.

The Bahamas celebrate Boxing Day with a street parade and festival called Junkanoo, in which traditional dancers fill the streets with their elaborate costumes and headdresses.


Let's return to the Christmas carol, where Wenceslas, I learned, was the Duke of Bohemia who reigned in the early 10th century.  He was apparently wandering around on his land on St. Stephen's Day when he saw a peasant gathering wood in the middle of a snowstorm.  Moved, the King gathered surplus food and wine and carried them through the blizzard to the peasant's door. The tradition has always been closely associated with the Christmas season, hence the canned-food drives and Salvation Army Santas that pepper our U.S. neighborhoods during the winter.  However, King Wenceslas' good deed came the day after Christmas, when the English poor received (and apparently still receive) most of their charity.

As an aside, I learned there were actually two St. Stephens.  The first Stephen lived in Rome and was the first man to be killed for believing in the teachings of Jesus. His story is told in Acts of the Apostles 6: 1 to 8: 2.   There is also evidence that he shares this day with another St Stephen, who came from Sweden. St Stephen of Sweden is the patron saint of horses.  It stands to reason because Boxing Day has long been associated with outdoor sports, especially horse racing and hunting.
 
I can't find anywhere that King Wenceslas started Boxing Day, but the Church of England might have. During Advent, Anglican parishes used a locked box in which churchgoers put their monetary donations. On the day after Christmas, the boxes were opened and their contents distributed among the poor, thus possibly giving rise to this scenario.

Similar to that is the "Alms" box which was placed in every church on Christmas Day, into which worshipers placed a gift for the poor who lived in the parish. The box was opened the day after Christmas and distributed to the needy.

Centuries ago, during feudal times, landowners (or manor lords) often brought everyone together for Christmas.  Since all the people who lived on the manor, mostly serfs, were in one place, it was easy to pass out the yearly necessities.  Each family got a box, depending on their status, and handing out supplies to the serfs was made easy for the manor lord.  In this scenario, the annual restocking became known as Boxing Day and was an obligation of the lord of the manor.

Because we're talking ancient times, another theory involves the merchant class, who often gave gifts to tradespeople or servants the day after Christmas, much like we in the U.S. give pre-Christmas gifts or tips to our paper or mail carrier, or person who tends our lawns or swimming pools.  Those gifts from days gone by were packed in boxes, so the day came to be known as Boxing Day.  In this scenario, the gift was strictly voluntary, and didn't involve an obligation.

In the 1400s, during the Age of Exploration, when sailing ships were setting off to discover new lands, a Christmas Box was used as a good luck device. It was a small container placed on each ship while it was still in port. It was put there by a priest, and those crewmen who wanted to ensure a safe return would drop money into the box. It was then sealed and kept on board for the entire voyage.  In this scenario, if the ship came home safely, the box was handed over to the priest in exchange for a mass of thanks for a successful voyage. The priest would keep the box sealed until the day after Christmas when he would open it to share the contents with the poor.

Another version of Boxing Day is that servants brought their own boxes to the master the day after Christmas.  Each master put small amounts of coins in the boxes.  This scenario is similar to the second theory above, in that the master was not obligated to give gifts or coins, and the servants did not depend on the master for their yearly food, clothing, and other necessities. 

Yet another scenario is that the day after Christmas was the traditional day on which the aristocracy distributed presents (boxes) to servants and employees, much like our modern day Christmas bonus or company sponsored Christmas party. The servants returned home, opened their boxes and had a second Christmas on what became known as Boxing Day.

This scenario involves an old English tradition. Since servants had to wait on their masters on Christmas Day, the servants of the wealthy were given the next day off to visit their families. Each servant was given a box to take home containing gifts, bonuses, and often leftover food.

Similar to the scenario above, during the late 18th century, Lords and Ladies of the manor would "box up" their leftover food and distribute these boxes the day after Christmas to tenants who lived and worked on their lands.  The delivery was made by the aristocracy instead of the servants taking them with them at the end of Christmas day.

There is one common thread in all the above scenarios, in that they all divide individuals by class, where the less fortunate, or "lower classes" are given gifts the day after Christmas, not before.  And observing the true meaning (or any of the above scenarios) of Boxing Day helps promote those class distinctions.

So which scenario is correct?  And which Boxing Day scenario do you prefer?  Even the British can't seem to agree when, where, how, or why Boxing Day came about.  They just know it's a bank holiday where presents have already been opened and a lavish meal has already been eaten.  And I doubt they are thinking about class distinction either.  After all, this IS the 21st century, not the middle ages, or even the 18th century for that matter. 


For this spread, I began with a sheet of 110 lb card stock, which I scored in half.  Each side is 5.5 X 8.5 inches (13,97 X  21,59 centimeters) and will fit nearly perfectly in my Challenges Too altered book.  I used a blue reinker and a baby wipe to create (swipe) the background.

I did something I've never done before.  I cut an element from a gifted Christmas card and used it as my main element on the right side of the page.  For the words "Boxing Day," I used my software program (WordPerfect) and the Scruff font, which was a bit hard to read in the smaller size.   For the large words I used my multi-colored stamp pad and swiped up and down on the words, which I cut into individual letters later.  For the numbered blocks of information, I edged them with some of the ink from the multi-colored stamp pad.  The left side got three stickers and the right side boxes were elevated using pop dots.

Bleubeard and I are delighted that you stopped by today.  We hope you will join us at Art Journal Journey, too.