Boxing Day – The
Day after Christmas Day. Day 2 (26th December) of the 12 Days of Christmas : St
Stephen’s Day
Save the date and the place to be “The 12 Days of Christmas – From Christmas Day (25th December) to Twelfth
Night (5th January)”.Supported by Les Aventures de Ronald Tintin, Super Professeur, mobile
application of Super Professeur :mobile.superprofesseur.com and Ronning AgainstCancer.
The 12
Days of Christmas –
From Christmas Day (25th
December) to Twelfth Night (5th January).
Merry
Christmas to you and A Happy New Year 2018 !!! From Ronald Tintin, Le Journal Intime de Sublima, Super Professeur, Marie-Joëlle Magne and Ronning Against Cancer
The 12 Days of Christmas are now most famous as a song about someone receiving lots of presents from their 'true love'. However, to get to the song there had to be the days to start with!
The 12 Days of Christmas start on Christmas Day and last until the evening of the 5th January - also known as Twelfth Night. The 12 Days have been celebrated in Europe since before the middle ages and were a time of celebration.
The 12 Days each traditionally celebrate a feast day for a saint and/or have different celebrations:
Day 2 (26th December also known as Boxing Day): St Stephen’s Day. He was the first Christian martyr
(someone who dies for their faith). It's also the day when the Christmas Carol 'Good King Wenceslas' takes place.
Boxing Day takes place on December
26th and is only celebrated in a few countries; mainly ones historically
connected to the UK (such as Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand)
and in many European countries. In Germany it is known as "Zweite Feiertag”
(which means 'second celebration') and also “Zweiter Weihnachtsfeiertag” which
translates as Boxing Day (although it doesn’t literally mean that)!
It was started in the UK about 800 years ago, during the Middle Ages. It
was the day when the alms box, collection boxes for the poor often kept in
churches, were traditionally opened so that the contents could be distributed
to poor people. Some churches still open these boxes on Boxing Day.
It might have been the Romans that first brought this type of collecting
box to the UK, but they used them to collect money for the betting games which
they played during their winter celebrations!
In Holland, some
collection boxes were made out of a rough pottery called 'earthenware' and were
shaped like pigs. Perhaps this is where we get the term 'Piggy Bank'!
It was also traditional that servants got the day off to celebrate
Christmas with their families on Boxing Day. Before World War II, it was common
for working people (such as milkmen and butchers) to travel round their
delivery places and collect their Christmas box or tip. This tradition has now
mostly stopped and any Christmas tips, given to people such as postal workers
and newspaper delivery children, are not normally given or collected on Boxing
Day.
Boxing Day has now
become another public holiday in countries such as the UK, Canada, Australia and New
Zealand. It is also the traditional day that Pantomimes started to play.
There are also often
sports played on Boxing Day in the UK, especially horse racing and football
matches!
It's also when shops traditionally had big sales after Christmas in the UK
(like Black Friday in the USA).
The 26th December is
also St. Stephen's Day. Just to confuse things, there are two St. Stephens
in history! The first St. Stephen is believed to have been a very early
follower of Jesus and he is said to have been the first Christian Martyr (a
person who dies for their religious beliefs). The Bible says that Stephen (who
was a Jew) was stoned to death by some other Jews (who didn't believe in
Jesus).
The second St. Stephen was a Missionary, in Sweden, in the 800s. He
loved all animals but particularly horses (perhaps why there is traditionally
horse racing on boxing day). He was also a martyr and was killed by pagans in
Sweden. In Germany there was a tradition that horses
would be ridden around the inside of the church during the St. Stephen's Day
service!
St. Stephen's Day (or 'the feast of Stephen') is when the Carol 'Good King Wenceslas' is set. It's about helping the
poor - so it has a strong connection to Boxing Day.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
TO YOU !!! From Ronald Tintin, Super Professeur and Ronning Against Cancer, Les Aventures de
Ronald Tintin, Le Journal Intime de Sublima
Ronald
Tintin, Founder of the project Ronning Against Cancer
“ Together, we can get rid of
cancer; we are not alone. Together, we are stronger.”
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT !
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