………………………………………isn’t a holiday in most parts of the world…………so Lucky Us!
Boxing Day became a “thing” around the 1830’s and the name comes from the custom of giving “Christmas boxes” to servants and apprentices and the tradesmen who delivered to the house.
December 26th is also St Stephen’s day. Stephen was a Hellenistic Jew, appointed by the Apostles as Deacon in the early Christian Church. He was stoned to death around AD 35, and as he was one of the first martyrs he was given the day following Christ’s birth as his feast day. Stephen is almost forgotten except for his mention in the carol “Good King Wenceslas”. But Wenceslas was a prince in Bohemia in the 10th century and the story in the carol is just fiction. It was probably the practice of giving money to servants or the poor that gave John Mason Neale the idea for the Carol in 1853.
(information mainly from the book ‘The English Year ‘by Steve Roud)
Thank you for all the Christmas Greetings.
