THE DAY AFTER

CELEBRATING BOXING DAY!

I'm not quite sure what Boxing Day is, but I imagine it kinda like this:






Or maybe like this:





Definitely NOT this:





OR:





Actually, for those of you looking for an educational experience:

No one seems to know whether the celebration of Boxing Day began in the middle of the 19th century or the middle of the ninth century. What we do know is that it definitely had its origins in England and is always celebrated on this day (except when December 26th falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the official holiday is moved to Monday) with government offices and many businesses closed.

Although folks throughout Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada celebrate Boxing Day, most don’t seem to know where the name originated or what Boxing Day signifies. All the theories of origin have the same theme: Those who considered themselves of a higher social class, gave to those beneath them. The wealthy landowners of the Middle Ages celebrated Christmas on Christmas Day, and their servants who worked for them on Christmas Day were given boxes of food and fruit on December 26th. Leftovers?

Another theory states that, in England, servants would carry boxes to their employers to receive coins, or their employers would leave small earthenware boxes for them filled with money on the day after Christmas. These were special year-end gifts. The first Christmas bonuses?

Still another theory: Church alms boxes were opened on Christmas Day and the contents distributed on December 26th. The first annual holiday-donation solicitation?

Today, Boxing Day is celebrated with family, friends, food, fun and friendship. The boxes involved are more likely to be filled with gifts being exchanged or after-Christmas sale items.

Charles Dickens wrote that Boxing Day was a holiday “… on which postmen, errand boys, and servants of various kinds received a Christmas box of contributions from those whom they serve.”


But personally, I prefer THIS interpretation:



.