Boxing Day is always special among shoppers. Here are some of the quickest facts about the 'Boxing day'.
1. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Boxing Day is a “holiday, on which post-men, errand-boys, and servants of various kinds expect to receive a Christmas-box”.
2. It has also been suggested that the term related to alms boxes left for the poor by churches.
3. However the earliest known use of the term Boxing Day dates back only to 1833 when the above practices were already dying away.
4. Boxing Day is also known as the Feast of Stephen as St Stephen’s Day is December 26.
5. Hunting wrens was once a popular activity on Boxing Day in Ireland. Killing them was thought unlucky on other days.
6. “No man ever talked in poetry ’cept a beadle on Boxin’ Day.” (Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens).
7. In 1994, South Africa changed its name for Boxing Day to Day of Goodwill.
8. December 26 is National Thanksgiving Day in the Solomon Islands and Family Day in Vanuatu.
9. It is Independence and Unity Day in Slovenia and Mummer’s Day in Padstow, Cornwall.
10. A petition to prevent shops from opening on Boxing Day has attracted more than 200,000 signatures and will now be debated by Parliament.
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