# What is Boxing day?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boxing-day/1026108
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 27, 2025, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boxing-day/1026108 "2025-12-27T21:39:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2025, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boxing-day/1026108/21 "2025-12-28T14:58:06Z")
> [@Schnitte](#):
>
> Liturgical calendars are a serious matter for the Vatican.
I found the liturgical Catholic calendar, but only in Spanish:
> **[Anexo:Santoral católico](https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Santoral_cat%C3%B3lico)**
>
> Este anexo contiene todas las conmemoraciones de los santos, beatos, celebraciones bíblicas y aparaciones de María, todas ellas memorias reconocidas por la Iglesia católica, a quienes ha asignado un día específico de culto, u observancia para los católicos a nivel mundial, salvo en los casos donde los cultos son locales o han caído en desuso.
> La principal fuente de información del santoral católico es el Martirologio romano, que junto con la tradición bíblica e histórica de la Iglesia Católica ...
> This appendix contains all the commemorations of saints, blessed persons, biblical celebrations, and apparitions of Mary, all of which are recognised by the Catholic Church, which has assigned a specific day of worship or observance for Catholics worldwide, except in cases where the worship is local or has fallen into disuse.
There is no day without several commemorations, and links to the event or person commemorated. Some are quite curious, that is a deep rabbit hole.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2025, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boxing-day/1026108/22 "2025-12-28T15:56:14Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#):
>
> The effect of this has been to to stabilise intermittent and uneven servicing across industry partners, and to force workers to chew up some of their accumulated leave.
I don’t understand. If the employer decides to shut down for two weeks, the employees have to use their leave?
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### Author:  [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2025, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boxing-day/1026108/23 "2025-12-28T16:05:14Z")
> [@Schnitte](#):
>
> But Stephen is one of the more prominent ones,
The first Christian martyr, after Christ and his apostles, I was taught
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2025, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boxing-day/1026108/24 "2025-12-28T16:17:10Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#):
>
> I don’t understand. If the employer decides to shut down for two weeks, the employees have to use their leave?
It varies widely obviously. Sometimes it’s all paid. Often in my experience is to get at least xmas and NY Day paid plus one more day next to each one so at least four days are company holidays and the rest is vacation days or unpaid.
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### Author:  [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2025, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boxing-day/1026108/25 "2025-12-28T17:24:53Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#):
>
> By the way, Saint Stephen is officially the patron saint of deacons, stonemasons, headaches and those who suffer from them.
Wherever he goes, the people all complain.
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### Author:  [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2025, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boxing-day/1026108/26 "2025-12-28T17:51:39Z")
Boxing Day is an English tradition that goes back to “time immemorial”. I may be named after the old tradition of giving employees and tradesmen a Christmas Box (ie, a bonus or gratuity), although why it should be on the day after Christmas may well relate to a Roman tradition of collecting alms for the poor on St Stephen’s day.
Easter Monday, Whit Monday, First Monday in August, and Boxing Day were created as “Bank Holidays” (literally - days on which banks were not open for business) in England, Wales and Ireland by the Bank Holiday Act in 1871, introduced by Sir John Lubbock Act. Christmas Day and Good Friday were already holidays under previous legislation.
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### Author:  [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2025, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boxing-day/1026108/27 "2025-12-28T19:05:50Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#):
>
> I don’t understand. If the employer decides to shut down for two weeks, the employees have to use their leave?
Yes - within the 10 day bracket there will be 3 public holidays and perhaps 1-2 state or industry paid days off, but the rest has to come from your own paid leave. In Australia this is 4 weeks minimum of paid annual leave, but you can put flex-days, time-in-lieu or other leave towards the total.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2025, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boxing-day/1026108/28 "2025-12-28T20:28:51Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#):
>
> In the Australian tradition Boxing Day is a secular public holiday. Being summer,
My Father served with the USAAF in Australia. While airfield housing was being built, airmen lived with Australian families, Father with the Grevilles. Mrs. Greville sent my Grandmother Christmas cards that had Spring scenes on them.
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2025, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boxing-day/1026108/29 "2025-12-28T21:17:00Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#):
>
> Boxing Day sales were seen as the major annual retail sales but have been undercut by the Black Friday sales in recent years.
“Black Friday sales”? Do you hold them the day after US Thanksgiving?
> [@FlikTheBlue](#):
>
> I thought it was called that because it’s the day people put certain gifts back in a box to return or exchange
I always thought it was the day to box up leftovers and other things to give them to the servants. Maybe should read the article… 🙂
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2025, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boxing-day/1026108/30 "2025-12-28T22:26:41Z")
I knew about it from the episode of MASH where they met soldiers from the British Army. They explained that the officers and enlisted switched roles for the day so the enlisted got the day off and officers did things like work in the mess hall. Obviously it didn’t extent to the battlefield. My recollection is that they said that it came from the tradition that the gentry would do the same thing with the staff so the Lord and Lady would cook and keep the fire going and tidy up. The servants would get small presents in boxes and hence the name. I am not vouching for the tv show being completely accurate nor my memory of an episode that I saw decades ago.
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### Author:  [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2025, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boxing-day/1026108/31 "2025-12-28T23:49:33Z")
> [@SCAdian](#):
>
> “Black Friday sales”? Do you hold them the day after US Thanksgiving?
Its a recent thing in Australia and seems to start ramping up in early November, with an amorphous open-ended sale / bargain / bonanza / today only / buy-or-die hype that continues until almost Christmas eve. The ‘official’ dates are Friday 28 Nov into the following week, but the actual identity of these officials is unknown to me.
We’re getting off-topic a bit, but I guess its all part of the joyous pudding that results from warmed-up religious observance meeting Victorian benevolence and modern mercantile exploitation, leavened with some desire to manage peoples’ time off so that it doesn’t inconvenience business, ie. Boxing Day.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2025, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boxing-day/1026108/32 "2025-12-29T00:14:14Z")
> [@Schnitte](#):
>
> But yes, in secular terms the usual term is “second day of Christmas”.
That’s not entirely a secular term. The “Twelve Days of Christmas” are the days from Christmas to the Feast of the Epiphany, and are one of the five official Seasons of the liturgical calendar (Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and Ordinary Time).
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### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2025, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boxing-day/1026108/33 "2025-12-29T00:17:13Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> > [@Schnitte](#):
> >
> > But yes, in secular terms the usual term is “second day of Christmas”.
>
> That’s not entirely a secular term.
In Germany, where @Schnitte and I are from, it is though, as the official name of the public holiday in a secular sense.
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### Author:  [@Ancient\_Nerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ancient_Nerd)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2025, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boxing-day/1026108/34 "2025-12-29T00:23:29Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> The “Twelve Days of Christmas” are the days from Christmas to the Feast of the Epiphany
I’m picturing each day bigger than the one before until you have the drummers drumming as the lords leap on the dancing ladies with the grand finale yet to come.
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### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2025, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boxing-day/1026108/35 "2025-12-29T15:45:52Z")
When days like Christmas and Boxing Day (+ Easter, etc.) are public holidays, one could say it is due to tradition, but clearly it was not _originally_ a secular tradition.
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### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2025, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boxing-day/1026108/36 "2025-12-29T15:52:13Z")
That’s definitely true, but there are many official public holidays on originally religious (Christian) feasts that have become very secular for most people, but are upheld for tradition.
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### Author:  [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2025, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boxing-day/1026108/37 "2025-12-29T15:54:06Z")
My point is that “second day of Christmas” is not the name of 26 December in any Christian tradition I am aware of. Where that day has a dedicated name in liturgical calendars, it is St Stephen’s Day, because that’s the saint associated with it. Sure, Christmas is, of course, Christian in origin, but the Christian holiday of Christmas (“the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord”, in formal Vatican speak) is a one-day event (plus the vigil the night before, as for any other holiday). The idea of extending it to two days is a secular idea which you can find in German public holiday statutes but not in liturgical calendars.
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### Author:  [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2025, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boxing-day/1026108/38 "2025-12-29T16:21:21Z")
But the idea of the “twelve days of Christmas” originated in Catholic doctrine. The Second Council of Tours in 567 decreed that every day between Christmas (December 25) and Epiphany (January 6) was a festival day. However, it does not specifically name them “the twelve days of Christmas”, if that is your point.
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### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2025, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boxing-day/1026108/39 "2025-12-29T17:02:23Z")
I can buy that, given that Christmas Day was already a holiday, somebody decided to make it a two-day holiday but that was a decision independent of any Catholic feasts that may or may not have been celebrated on the same day.
Do we know who first decreed the “Second Day of Christmas” a public holiday in Germany?
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### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2025, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boxing-day/1026108/40 "2025-12-29T17:04:34Z")
> [@DPRK](#):
>
> Do we know who first decreed the “Second Day of Christmas” a public holiday in Germany?
That’s a good question, but it cannot have happened before 1871, when Germany first was united. Formerly, probably every region, duchy, kingdom or city had their own regulations, probably also depending if the region was nominally Catholic or Protestant.
ETA: I did a quick search for “when was the second day of Christmas made a public holiday in Germany” (in German), but couldn’t find any definite cites.
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