Boxing Day- The Day After Christmas

If there is a special day after Christmas, then that will be specially dedicated to none other than the Boxing Day. Have you ever wondered why such a name has been given to a festival? No worries, it has nothing to deal with punches, fights and regrets!

Boxing Day is all about happiness, sharing and most of all- it is the spirit of Gifting in the X’mas Season!!!

Boxing Day 2023 is on December 26 Tuesday

6 months and 14 days to go for the event

When did the Boxing Day originally come up?

No doubt, this festival first took shape in United Kingdom.

Every year, it is celebrated on December 26th every year. It is regarded as a public holiday and as per the liturgical calendar of Western Calendar- it is considered as the second day of the Christmas celebrations.

How is Boxing Day celebrated in different parts of the world?

In Ireland, this day is also known as the St. Stephen’s Day.

Whereas, in places like Germany, Poland, Scandinavia and Netherlands, this day is officially called as the Second Christmas Day.

Did You Know About The Boxing Day?

Significance of the Boxing Day

It does not have any religious bindings to the birth of Jesus Christ or so, but rather was a tradition that developed over time.

After Christmas, people often are still in the festive mood and love to visit friends, gift them something and so on.

Another much loved activity is that, the family may get- together to finish the leftovers from the grand Christmas meal.

So, it is more of a socialising function, as on this day offices are close and even is a bank holiday in most Western places. 

The Relevance of Boxing Day

A lot of meanings are attached to this day and some of them go like this:

Gift and Share The Joy of Christmas

The first one matches a lot with the name and that means the day of gifting Holiday Gifts!  In the past, this was considered as a special holiday and a day of rest for servants in big mansions. The master used to gift them a special ‘Christmas Box’ full of goodies, clothes and money for them and their families.

Charity is in Focus!

Xmas is a time when the whole world celebrates and so traditions teach that you need to share and give a part of your money to the needy as well. For this, churches keep a ‘Poor Box’ in Churches for church goers to donate. That was, this will happiness to many families in that area. 

The Lovely Nautical Tradition

In the past, the mode of long transport was huge sailing ships and by the time Christmas came along, there was a practice of keeping a sealed box inside the ship. This was done as a sign of good luck. The sailors used to fill he box with money and clothes. If they survived the trip, they used to donate this to a church. The priest of that church would take this box and distribute the contents to the poor.