Why do we have Boxing Day in Australia?

Boxing Day is a holiday in many countries, such as Australia, in the Commonwealth of Nations. It was traditionally a day for employers in England to give bonuses of money, leftover food or old clothing to their employees, or for lords to give agricultural tools and seeds for the coming year to their tenants.

What is the history of Boxing Day?

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the custom arose because servants, who would have to wait on their masters on Christmas Day, were allowed to visit their families the next day and employers would give them boxes to take home containing gifts, bonuses and, sometimes, leftover food.

Is Boxing Day an Australian thing?

In Australia, Boxing Day is a public holiday in all jurisdictions except the state of South Australia, where a public holiday known as Proclamation Day is celebrated on the first weekday after Christmas Day or the Christmas Day holiday.

Is Boxing Day always 26th?

Boxing Day is traditionally celebrated on 26 December, the day after Christmas Day, though many people hold—and there is documentary assertion—that it would not fall on a Sunday (Sunday being the day of worship), and consequently Monday 27 December would be Boxing Day.

Why is it called Boxing Day?

The Oxford English Dictionary gives the earliest attestations from Britain in the 1830s, defining it as “the first weekday after Christmas day, observed as a holiday on which postmen, errand boys, and servants of various kinds expect to receive a Christmas box”.

Why is boxing called Boxing Day?

The name comes from a time when the rich used to box up gifts to give to the poor. Boxing Day was traditionally a day off for servants, and the day when they received a special Christmas box from their masters. The servants would also go home on Boxing Day to give Christmas boxes to their families.

Why is Boxing Day called boxing?

There are several theories as to how that charitable tradition became known as “boxing.” Some historians tie the use of the term to boxes of donations that were installed in churches during the pre-Christmas season of Advent in the early days of Christianity during the second and third centuries A.D. The day after …

Why is Boxing Day called Boxing Day in Australia?

In Australia, it means cricket, sailing, sales, movies, hangovers and leftovers. But why is the day after Christmas called Boxing Day? The term is most common in Commonwealth nations, with the Oxford dictionary tracing its origins from the mid 1800s “from the custom of giving tradespeople a Christmas box on this day”.

Which countries celebrate Boxing Day on 26 December?

Boxing Day. In some European countries such as Romania, Hungary, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and Scandinavia, 26 December is celebrated as a Second Christmas Day.

What is Boxing Day in the UK and Ireland?

Boxing Day is the 26th December and is a national holiday in the UK and Ireland. Arguments abound on the origins of the name Boxing Day. A ‘Christmas Box’ in Britain is a name for a Christmas present.

What is the Boxing Day Test match?

In Australia, the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) hosts the Boxing Day Test match every year from December 26 to 30 between the Australian side and any side which is on that particular tour. The first Boxing Day Test match took place between Australia and England in 1950.