Boxing Day 2022: What Boxing Day means and how it’s celebrated

Boxing Day – December 26 – is known as Boxing Day in the UK and the British Commonwealth.

Boxing Day is recognized as a statutory or bank holiday that provides time off for non-essential personnel, according to National Today, an online holiday calendar.

The origin of the day is said to be unknown, but historians have found that the term entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1833 and was referenced in Charles Dickens’ novel « The Pickwick Papers » in 1836.

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Boxing Day was likely an established tradition before these moments in 19th-century pop culture, according to History.com, a digital news source for A+E Networks’ History Channel.

History.com reports that scholars are split between two theories about the potential origins of Boxing Day.

The first theory suggests that Boxing Day may have arrived when British aristocrats distributed small gifts, cash and leftover Christmas dinner to servants and employees after the festivities ended.

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« These boxes were, in essence, holiday bonuses, » History.com wrote in a « Why is Boxing Day called Boxing Day? » report.

The second theory suggests that Boxing Day may have evolved from the donation boxes that churches distributed to collect alms (money or food) to help those in need throughout the Advent season. , which generally runs from November 30 to December 24, according to National Geographic. .

Fox hunting was once a common Boxing Day tradition. The sport was banned in Scotland, England and Wales at the start of the 21st century. Here, in this photo from 2010, a costumed fox hunter in a red coat addresses a crowd at a market in Masham, North Yorkshire, from his saddled horse before a ceremonial fox hunt on Boxing Day.
(Stock)

“Members of the clergy distributed the contents of the boxes to the poor on December 26, which is also the feast day of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr and a figure known for his acts of charity,” reports History.com.

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Today, Boxing Day is celebrated in the countries of the United Kingdom, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as in the countries of the British Commonwealth, including Canada, l Australia and New Zealand, according to National Today and History.com.

Common Boxing Day celebrations would include shopping, visiting friends and family, donating to charity, and watching sporting events including football, cricket, swimming and horse racing.

Foxhunting was once an annual Boxing Day tradition, but the sport was banned in Scotland in 2002 and in England and Wales two years later, according to New World Encyclopedia, a copyrighted online information resource.

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Countries that ban fox hunting would simulate the sport by allowing participants to follow artificially made trails to track foxes, but without killing the furry animals.

Protesters have been opposing legal and illegal fox hunting at sanctioned Boxing Day events across the UK, according to multiple national media outlets, at press time.