boxing day, when you put the boxes away from the presents on christmas day

It is better to aim for the stars and hit the tops of the trees than to aim for nothing and hit it dead on.

dont the americans have boxing day?


"Something wicked this way comes"

in Japan they don't have father Christmas, they have "Annual Seasonal Gift-Providing Fictional Character" or some thing like that.

Boxing day, when you put everything back in it's boxes and atake it back to the shop cos it doesn't work or fit properly.

Who needs Boxing Day?

If you've done it right over here, the kids will have so thoroughly demolished all the packaging that its already been put in the recycling bin.

Uh. No. No Boxing Day in the USA but I believe that it is observed in Canada.

@Taw:

They may not have Father Christmas (who's he?) but they do have Santa Clause!

Edited by - Indy11 on 25-12-2003 15:13:56

It's just another day off

o Manhattan dwelling heathen!

Father Christmas is the proper traditional English yuletide gent, a rather more ambivalent figure dating back to pagan times, more a personification of natural forces. Traditionally dressed in green, large, jocular but also a little scary, and wearing a crown of holly and mistletoe, he was eventually merged with the Saint Nicholas story and then later adapted for more commercial imagery by the Coca-Cola company, which is where his current avuncular manifestation was spawned.

Fr. Christmas belongs with our traditional English/British characters and traditions like well-dressings, maypoles, will o' the wisps, and morris dancers (that's sad middle aged men beating each other with pigs bladders) the REAL Fr. Christmas is, of course, 100% ours, and lives in Bradford

Don't wanna spoil the fun, but, the answer is:

Its so that you can pack away all the turkeys, or whatever you ate for christmas into a box and spare it for the easter bunny :p

naah...just kiddin'

The real meaning is that its when the churches open the charity/collection boxes and count all the cash, or whatever in there... Dunno where that leads, probably to the poor, or the church keeps it themselves....

Probably also a reason why it ain't celebrated in the US, as the churches are quite different, and they are abit off the Catholic Scheme...(Although, Protestants also celebrate it....hmmmm)

@Taw:

Oh yeah. I'm the heathen, eh? For not dancing about Yule naked and drunk on mead, having young maidens stringing maypoles and singing tra-la-lee while traipsing about in diaphanous gowns .... er.... how does one become a heathen?

visit the village of Endon, Staffordshire, for the springtime well-dressing ceremony, and you will see!

I think there's somewhere not too far from where Arch lives in Salop that has a similar well-known ceremony, prob Much Wenlock or somewhere like that. Endon's ours.

What I heard was that Boxing Day (Or as us Dutch Call it() : Second Christmas Day) is an ancient Tradition of the wealthy english folk (Knights Lords That stuff)
They used the day to, for one day, Swap roles with the servants and staff and do the chores (sp?) at the house so the staff could rest and relax for the coming year.

It is said that on this day the servant could do anything with the master, without repercussions, as long as it was about the house, But the families never left the house at Boxing day.

I don't know if the tradition is still alive, in order to know I just have to state a question: Is there a lord in the house???, Preferably with staff.

__________________________________________________________
Oh, dear, How sad, Never mind!!-Battery Sergeant Major Williams
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the tradition survives in some stately homes and institutions of the swapping of ranks and roles for the day, but mostly in the Armed Forces, where officers will serve the men at mess. it goes back to the medieval custom of the Feast of fools, and even further, to the Roman festival of Saturnalia.

I never swap roles with my housekeeping staff.

Edit: Damn spelling.

Daft Vader - I am your father.
sS - Noooooooo! I demand a DNA-test.
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It's better to chase a rabbit then to catch a hare...

Well if swapping roles is the key, heck, I've had Boxing Days over here without even knowing it... if being Mr. Mom counts, that is.

Edited by - Indy11 on 26-12-2003 04:01:57

@Indy: heathen, heh? Would be interesting to talk about the Winter Solstice the Christians stole and renamed Xmas.
@Loc: if this was really the way you described, it must've been a long ago when the noblemen still remembered where they came from
Anyway, I don't have a clue concerning the boxing day, as I was never interested in boxing


"Beer is proof that god loves us and wants us to be happy"