Boxing day is celebrated as a National holiday in the UK, after Christmas day. Typically, Boxing Day is a shopping holiday on 26 December of each year. However, this year 28 December is marked as Boxing Day as 26th falls on the weekend. We have no idea why this holiday is called Boxing holiday as it has nothing to do with boxing; instead, it is a confusing mixture of boxing. Although the bank holiday of 26 December is long standing in the Christmas calendar, we have no idea how this day got this name.
Why is it called Boxing Day?
There are various conflicting theories, but it originated in the UK and is celebrated worldwide.
- It is a bank holiday or public holiday that became official in 1871.
- The first is that the day after Christmas when servants of the wealthy were given time off to visit their families as they needed to work on a primary day. Each of them has to take a food box, bonus, and gifts to take home.
- We can also relate it to the box given to the poor in the Victorian era as traditionally, there was a box placed in churches on Christmas day and supposed to open the next day.
- It was also customary for Tradespeople to collect Christmas boxes of money or gifts the day after Christmas to thank you for the good services over the year.
- Sailing ships after the voyage after setting sail offers a box of money for good luck, and that box is given to the priest. That box is opened on Christmas and given to the poor, usually cash or gifts.
- We could also refer to this name to charity collections that used to take place in Great Britain following Christmas and the money being collected inboxes.
- It is also known as St. Stephen’s Day, named after Stephen, the first Christian martyr mentioned in the Bible in the book of acts.
Celebration of Boxing Day
Boxing day is usually celebrated to spend with family or friends, mainly not seen on Christmas day.
In modern times, it has become a shopping day, and usually, sales start now on boxing day, previously they used to begin in January. Time to get gifts related to boxing for friends and family;. If we typically talk about Boxing gear as gifts, one can get boxing gloves, boxing pads, even some cheap boxing gloves as a gift, although Boxing Day has nothing to do with Boxing sport.
It is a relaxing day after Christmas celebrations while staying on the couch all day and eating leftovers.
Usually, banks, post offices, and numerous businesses and organizations are closed on Boxing Day. However, stores and pubs are generally open for entertainment but closed earlier.
