Originally posted by Blue Oyster Cult
I bet Peter has some documentation on this.. tell ALL.
Sure are a lot of nice folks here.
Hi there Blue:
Offical stuff from Canadian Ministry of Heritage.
Boxing Day
The day after Christmas, the Feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, is better known as Boxing Day. The term may come from the opening of church poor boxes that day; maybe from the earthenware boxes with which boy apprentices collected money at the doors of their masters' clients.
Nowadays, we often see, in certain families, gifts (boxes) given to those who provide services throughout the year.
"Boxing Day" is listed in the Canada Labour Code as a holiday.
From another site:
Boxing Day
With stores like Rogers Video open every day of the year, some of us know what it's like to work on Christmas day. The difference between working now and back in Medieval times is significant. Back then, servants had to wait hand and foot on Lords and Ladies - some of them were not so nice, I might add. While the family feasted on large meals and joyfully opened up presents, the paid staff worked their butts off. This doesn't mean servants had to go without Christmas and presents though. The day after Christmas faithful servants or employees would get a Christmas Box.
The first Boxing Day is believed to have started in the Middle Ages. This is just a guess cuz the exact date isn't known. How Boxing Day started is a question as well. Some say it started with the giving of Christmas Boxes, like the story above. Others think it was named for the tradition of opening charity boxes placed in churches during the Christmas season. The contents were given out to the poor.
Only in the last century has Boxing Day become a holiday. By having Christmas Day and Boxing Day as holidays people could take trips or get together with family members for Christmas. Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated in Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. If December 26 falls on Saturday or Sunday the public dedicates the following Monday to Boxing Day.
Peter's Extra :
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Also many people rush out to the Big Boxing day sales at electronic stores early in the morning for big savings, very similar to the day after U.S. Thanksgiving. I know in looking for deals on Dvd's at Futureshop.ca their site was going up and down with the volume of consumers all looking at once at various items for sale, this was about 5 minutes after midnight Christmas Day!
