BS: Anybody boxing yet?

Subject: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: Raptor
Date: 26 Dec 09 - 08:29 AM

Who named it that and why?

Subject: RE: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: Paul Burke
Date: 26 Dec 09 - 08:38 AM

It's the day traditionally given over to putting all the useless Christmas presents in boxes, to be put away for a few years until a clear-out sends them to the charity shop.

Subject: RE: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 26 Dec 09 - 08:39 AM

According to Wiki & other sources, it was the day the gentry gave their Xmas presents [known by semi-archaic name of 'Xmas boxes'] to their servants, as thanks for their services thru Xmas period.

Nothing to do with fisticuffs, alas, as always used to imagine as a child - esp since cousin of same age & I both received mini-boxing-gloves as Xmas prezzies at age 4 or 5 [1936 or 37] & were first shown rudiments of the noble art by my father & an uncle who had both boxed in student days {which I never really followed up, but cousin boxed 11 or so years later in first team for St Pauls School, which not bad} — hence my semantic confusion for many years: &, judging by name you have given to this thread, yours also!

Subject: RE: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: gnu
Date: 26 Dec 09 - 09:02 AM

Yup. I have several items for the Red Cross.

Subject: RE: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: GUEST,Falco
Date: 26 Dec 09 - 09:09 AM

The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon tradition of giving seasonal gifts in the form of a "Christmas box" to less wealthy people and slaves. In the United Kingdom this was later extended to various workpeople such as labourers, servants, tradespeople and postal workers.

Boxing Day is traditionally celebrated on 26 December, St. Stephen's Day, the day after Christmas Day. Unlike St. Stephen's Day, Boxing Day is a secular holiday and is not always on 26 December: the public holiday is generally moved to the following Monday if 26 December is a Saturday. If 25 December is a Saturday then both the Monday and Tuesday may be public holidays. However the date of observance of Boxing Day varies between countries.

Subject: RE: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 26 Dec 09 - 11:16 AM

My understanding was that the name came from the fact that presents were not opened on Christmas day as this was reserved for going to church so the boxes were left until the day after. However as Sunday was also a day for church Boxing Day is NEVER a Sunday!

Subject: RE: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 26 Dec 09 - 11:16 AM

Fie on Boxing Day!

Mrs . Sunset Coast and I took our first trip off the North American continent to the sunny Caribbean some 30 odd years ago. We traveled from Christmas Eve for four or five days. The ship was a mere yacht when compared with the leviathans of the sea today, carrying a mere 700 passengers. The cruise, itself, was wonderful.

Nassau, Bahamas was our second port of call, scheduled for December 26. Our oh so knowledgeable travel agent (our across the street neighbor) failed to inform us that December 26 was Boxing Day (which we'd never heard of). Long story short, everything in Nassau is closed, save a few eateries and the large open-air market tourist trap. As far as I'm concerned, I've never been to Nassau.

So maybe not fie on Boxing Day. Fie, instead, on bad travel agents, and travelers who fail to do their due diligence before booking.

Subject: RE: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 26 Dec 09 - 11:19 AM

The boxing occurs when stores reduce unsold Christmas inventory to ridiculously low prices and customers start fighting over them.

Subject: RE: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: GUEST,Falco
Date: 26 Dec 09 - 12:16 PM

If you care to walk the streets of most English cities in the small hours of tomorrow morning, say around around 2am when the clubs close. You will see plenty of Boxing.

A friend of my wife is a nurse in the A&E department of our local hospital. She worked an 8 hour shift on Christmas day and said it was a nightmare. Families that went to war with a few after dinner drinks in them and people thinking they were taking heart attacks after eating a dinner served on a 2 foot plate.

So much for the true meaning of Christmas.

Subject: RE: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 26 Dec 09 - 12:31 PM

It's a day named in honour of the "Righteous Fists of Harmony" or "Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists". This Chinese society or more adequately called a movement was formed to fight and protest the imperialist expansion, growth of cosmopolitan influences, and missionary evangelism brought on by the western nations.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 26 Dec 09 - 01:23 PM

Got lots of boxes here, the rubbish isn't collected for another 2 weeks so we're flattening them ....or possible bonfire on new years eve!

Subject: RE: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 26 Dec 09 - 08:16 PM

So, if today is Boxing Day, when is Fencing Day?

Subject: RE: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 26 Dec 09 - 08:16 PM

"Snopes.com, a Web site devoted to exploring urban legend, hoaxes and rumors, says Boxing Day is about preserving class lines in society. Social equals would exchange gifts on or before Christmas Day, but the less fortunate would get their gifts the day after Christmas. Those receiving gifts on Boxing Day were never supposed to give back to their benefactors, because they would be seen as uppity for thinking they were equal to those who gave them charity."

I have NOT checked this on Snopes because I have difficulty finding stuff there.

Subject: RE: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 26 Dec 09 - 09:19 PM

Well hell, if it's about preserving class lines in society, why not call it "Here's a crappy gift go fuck yourself you inferior sack of shit Day"?

Subject: RE: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 27 Dec 09 - 12:46 AM

That was the second choice but it was too difficult to get into the little box on the calendar.

Subject: RE: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 27 Dec 09 - 05:26 AM

My understanding of it is that Boxing Day is the day after Christmas Day. Boxing Day Bank Holiday is when the government fixes it if Boxing Day falls on a public holiday such as Sunday.

Subject: RE: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 27 Dec 09 - 02:29 PM

No, Boxing Day has never been a Sunday even before public holidays were invented because of the need to attend church. Presents were not exchanged on Christmas day.

Subject: RE: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 27 Dec 09 - 02:39 PM

According to the OED it is the first weekday after Christmas.

Subject: RE: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 27 Dec 09 - 04:44 PM

Never on a Sunday, a Sunday, a Sunday .....

Subject: RE: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: Michael
Date: 28 Dec 09 - 06:14 AM

So as Boxing Day has passed I can't hit anybody for another year?
Bugger!

Mike

Subject: RE: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 28 Dec 09 - 10:21 AM

I'm sure that everyone I know, in the UK, would say that Boxing Day is always the day after Christmas Day. For example, next year, 2010, Christmas Day falls on a Saturday, but if someone said that were calling around on Boxing Day, I would assume that was Sunday, December 26th. If anyone in the UK disagrees with this, I would assume that my understanding must be tied into my region of the UK.

Subject: RE: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: Michael
Date: 28 Dec 09 - 11:37 AM

I agree with Tunesmith, Boxing Day IS the day after Christmas Day. I've always assumed that when that day is a day when banks are shut anyway, then technicaly the Bank Holiday has to be the next working day.
Mike

Subject: RE: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 28 Dec 09 - 04:18 PM

A daughter and friends made their annual Boxing Day excursion from B. C. to Alberta. No sales tax here.

Subject: RE: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 29 Dec 09 - 09:02 AM

I heard (or maybe dreamt or made up!) that it was the day the 'poor boxes' in churches were opened up and the contents distributed to the poor of the parish. It was left until after the Christamas day service because that would be a big one.

Nice ring to it even if inaccurate:-)

Cheers

DeG

Subject: RE: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 29 Dec 09 - 03:26 PM

It would be very nice to have servants to whom Christmas Boxes may be given!

Subject: RE: BS: Anybody boxing yet?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 Dec 09 - 06:22 PM

Boxing Week rather than Boxing Day now appears in store advertisements. The old meaning is losing out.