It’s on your calendar every year (usually the day after Christmas) and sounds like it may have something to do with your family duking it out after the holiday cheer wears off.
That’s not it. “Boxing Day,” also known as St. Stephen’s Day, originated in Britain centuries ago and has been an official holiday there since 1871. According to TIME Magazine, the Christmas carol “Good King Wenceslas” best explains:
“Wenceslas, who was Duke of Bohemia in the early 10th century, was surveying his land on St. Stephen’s Day — Dec. 26 — when he saw a poor man gathering wood in the middle of a snowstorm. Moved, the King gathered up surplus food and wine and carried them through the blizzard to the peasant’s door.
The alms-giving tradition has always been closely associated with the Christmas season — hence the canned-food drives and Salvation Army Santas that pepper our neighborhoods during the winter — but King Wenceslas’ good deed came the day after Christmas, when the English poor received most of their charity.”
It is also thought that it was a day that the wealthy would give presents to their servants, since they worked on Christmas, but had the next day off. Unfortunately the holiday isn’t celebrated as a charitable day much anymore. Why not bring back the good intentions starting next year?
Read more about its origins here.
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