TODAY IN HISTORY

[Coffinmaker]

And let us not forget .... IT'S BOXING DAY!!!

[Abilene]

So, it's the day you box up the junk you got for Christmas to return to the store?

[Reverend P. Babcock Chase]

The day we celebrate all pugilists?

Reverend Chase

[pony express]

Time to take down all the Christmas decorations and BOX them up.

[Russ T Chambers]

I thought it was the day to check all the gift boxes for sleeping cats, before moving the boxes to the garage   

[Coffinmaker]

Nah.  None of the above.  Boxing day is day the downstairs staff receive gifts along with postmen, Messengers, types of servants.  Origin was in the UK.

[john boy]

Boxing Day is the big meets across the UK where the hounds run a scented fox trail ...
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7827767/Thousands-hunt-supporters-attend-dozens-Boxing-Day-meets-UK.html

[Professor Marvel]

My Good Friends Coffin and John-Boy are correct

As John-Boy relates Modern Boxingday has transmorgrified into a Foxhunting Debacle using an artificial fox now.

But Good Friend Coffin is also correct, (possibly more correct since its been done longer?)

Dec 26 is celebrated as both Boxing Day and St Stephens Day aka "The Feast of St Stephen".

About 800 years ago, in Merry Olde England, Dec 26 was the day when the alms box,
(collection boxes for the poor) was opened and the contents distributed to the local poor people.
Thus, the "first recorded" references to "boxing day"

Some churches still open these boxes and disttribute funds on Boxing Day.

Saint Stephen's Day, or the Feast of Saint Stephen, commemorates Saint Stephen (who would have thought?),
the Martyr of Jerusalem and the first Christian martyr.

BTW, Saint Stephen's Day, aka "Feast of Stephen" features prominently in the Christmas Carol "Good King Wenceslas" ,
in which  Saint Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia (or SvatVclav in Czech) sets out on Dec 26 DURING A BLIZZARD to
deliver food, drink, wood,  and "alms" to the suffering poor, accompanied only by a Page ( but from the paintings depicting
the event I would have said the Page was no more than a paragraph.)

Saint Stephen The Martyr should not, however, be confused with "Stephen of Hungary" aka
King Saint Stephen (Hungarian: Szent Istvn kirly), an entirely different Stephen (more on him later)

Now, we must fast forward to Henry VIII who canceled the Catholic Church and established the C of E
(Church of England) which was basically the same but replacing the Pope with Henry, so Henry could
give himself yet another divorce ( there was a lot of political and financial stuff but never mind that).

A whole passle of feasts, saint days, and whathaveyou were therefore canceled, reshuffled and reprioritized,
and the Feast of Stephen sort of fell off the edge In Merry Old England.

As we fast forward the Wayback Machine to the 1600's and 1700's , we find English Rich People sort of
taking over from actual aristocracy, and since they had a LOT of hired help ( inside work, regular
meals, and a warm room to sleep in was highly desired) eventually The Rich realized that the slaves
servants needed occasional days off. Since The Help had to be on hand to work while the Rich Celebrated
Christmas, The Rich came up with "Boxing Day", the day after Christmas as a day off for the help.

SOoooo Boxing Day became the traditional ChristamsTime day off for servants, as well as for distributing the offerings from the church's "poor box" and the day when the servants received a"Christmas Box" from "the master". The servants would often go home on Boxing Day to visit their families and brought what presents they could.

Boxing Day finally got semi-officially "named" during the Victorian era (and has nothing to do with pugilism).

Later we will compare and contrast
- Good King Wenceslas,
- Good King Saint Stephen I, and
- Saint Nicholas of Myra, aka Nicholas of Bari, aka Nicholas the Wonderworker, said to be the proto- Santa Claus

yhs
prof marvel

[Capt Quirk]

Zzzzzzz... Snort... Is class over yet?

[Professor Marvel]

Zzzzzzz... Snort... Is class over yet?

For now, but study up the final is after The Twelve Days....

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

In Williams Lake, British California, the day after New Years has become an official civic holiday, known as Wrestling Day!

[Dick Dastardly]

Nine months after Boxing Day comes procreation day in September.  When many of us celebrate birthdays.  Long cold winter nights bring much cuddling days with attendant procreation.  Yea!

DD-MDA  (Master of the Dark Arts)

Happy New Year!