Boxing Day

Excerpted from a sermon that included the creation of the Christian calendar, the Feast of St. Stephen, martyrdom, and other religious symbolism etc.

Boxing Day is an early Victorian celebration (?) that is still maintained and observed in parts of the British Isles, Canada, and Australia-our the closest cultural, and religious ancestors.

Now to avoid any confusion or misinformation: While it’s long been known that the Irish, Welsh, and Scots are all a scrappy bunch, and have always tried to give the English Crown and the Parliament an uppercut or two, this day has nothing to do with boxing, fisticuffs, or pugilism! All we do know is that it is a holiday celebrated all across what once was called the British Empire, from England to New Zealand!

So what is Boxing Day? As elementary as the answer might seem, even Sherlock Holmes would have been stumped trying to find its exact origins… No one is completely sure how it all began!

To our best reckoning, Boxing Day recalls an uncertain date and time when public servants would carry a metal box with them as they made their appointed rounds or waited on their usual customers.

This box was where they would put their hard-earned pence, tuppence, any money gifts they might receive. If at all fortunate, this day after Christmas was the day when the aristocracy or the more affluent merchants would offer a half a crown or some gift to them for a year’s good service. A modern variation is the money card, or some kind of gift certificate as a token of appreciation.

After the gift exchanges of the holiday, the Lord and Lady of the Manor would gather their older belongings, and make presents of these fine quality castoffs to their servants.

Most often these “extras” included food leftovers, millinery goods, gleanings from the harvest, and whatever did not sell from their sponsored artisans such as leather goods or pottery. Later, during Victorian times, Boxing Day was popularized and became part of the Dickinsonian world. While it was more gentle, it nevertheless remained quite firm about maintaining the hierarchies of the culture with all its manners and mores.

This day gave witness to a less than harsh feeling of serf and master. This day was commemorated by remembering the unselfish service and caring they received as the aristocracy- and in some ways was a holiday concession or a symbolic acknowledgment of how they showed some pity and compassion.

This is the retrospective yet noble sentiment forms the altruistic, possible background and the historical significance of the post Christmas carol, “Good King Wenceslas”.

What kinds of people were specially remembered on Boxing Day? As the Old English nursery rhyme goes, “The Butcher, the Baker, and the Candlestick Maker…” But all public servants qualify. Helpers and servers such as the mail carriers, paper boys, the train conductors, and ticket tenders; butlers, maids, the gardener, the nurses and nannies, the parson or the vicar, and of course, the local constable and the fire brigade…

In short, all the people who made your life a little easier, cleaner, more enjoyable, and more safe. If you happen to maintain a relationship or at least will exchange friendly feelings regularly with any of these public servants, then this is the day to offer recognition with some appreciation, or a little thank-you gift.

How can we promote and redeem this day in our world?
First, recognize that there is a human ongoing need for recognition and appreciation, or to help correct the social attitude that lets some people be taken for granted,

Boxing Day might well be a holiday for progressive and compassionate people everywhere to encourage and earnestly celebrate.

As far as I understand it, and try to practice it, sincere expressions of gratitude are always in season; and such caring is a clear sign that a person understands the gifts of life and that charity and caring are an expression of one of the chief Western values and virtues: practicing hospitality. Hospitality is applying one’s faith and one’s gratitude for life by providing for others.

As the Scriptures remind us, practice hospitality; for by caring about others, you are entertaining angels unawares.” It is a virtue that emphasizes the need for cooperation among family and church members, our neighbors, local people.

On a deeper level, these activities of Boxing Day are a part of our heartfelt witness, and provide us with tangible and workable steps we can take to promote more kindness in our world…

To paraphrase Emerson and combining it with lines from another essay, we can read:
“The greatest gift anyone can ever give another person is a portion of oneself. Without the efforts of giving or including a personal portion within a gift, it can become heartless-the exchange of simple commerce.”

As I see it, Boxing Day remembered is both an act of charity, and an act of faith; it is showing appreciation, and it is an expression of humility; as well as acting to defy or take a stand against crassness, materialism, and cheap celebration.

In some very important ways, extending Christmas to include at least one more day, extends the effects of genuine caring in our world- acknowledging the fullness and the rightness of honoring others who make our lives easier, and more safe…

We can remember the gracious generosity of Boxing Day with its loving kindness, and to know that expressions of love, integrity, sacrifice, and caring are always in season!

Being joyful and offering tidings of comfort and joy during this season is a good start, but the spiritual aspiration is found in the task to remain joyful and being willing to work for more reasons to celebrate the good of God in your lives…
For it represents the greatest gifts we can give to one another.
AMEN