Happy Boxing Day!

To all our DU friends in the UK, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia! :toast:

I was doing some reading on Boxing Day yesterday, and couldn't find what I was looking for.

I seem to remember something about roles traditionally being reversed for the day. I remember that from my days as an Episcopalian, and also.... I think there was something on one episode of M.A.S.H. about it.

Anyone know anything about that part of it?

Kanary

Does anyone else remember that episode too?

-- Allen

They had some English officers and soldiers in camp at Christmas time, and when the MASH unit learned about Boxing Day, they tried the custom of reversing the roles of officer and enlisted man. I think Klinger was made the CO in place of Potter.

The holiday's roots can be traced to Britain, where Boxing Day is also known as St. Stephen's Day. Reduced to the simplest essence, its origins are found in a long-ago practice of giving cash or durable goods to those of the lower classes. Gifts among equals were exchanged on or before Christmas Day, but beneficences to those less fortunate were bestowed the day after.

And that's about as much as anyone can definitively say about its origin because once you step beyond that point, it's straight into the quagmire of debated claims and dueling folklorists. Which, by the way, is what we're about to muddy our boots with.
http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/boxing.asp

"Boxes in churches for seasonal donations to the needy were opened on Christmas Day, and the contents distributed by the clergy the following day. The contents of this alms box originated with the ordinary folks in the parish who were under no direct obligation to provide anything at all and were certainly not tied to the recipients by a employer/employee relationship. In this case, the "box" in "Boxing Day" comes from that one gigantic lockbox the donations were left in."

That's the version I was familiar with, although I had thought it was "poor box" rather than "lockbox" in the above. I'll do a websearch later on, and see if I can get a better fix on the term.

pnorman
STAND UP, KEEP FIGHTING http://shows.implex.tv/wellstone/