Boxing Day Today

Today in most countries big discounts and bargains are launched in shopping centres, sales are increased during Boxing Day just as the day following Thanksgiving in the USA and Canada. It is also an important day on the sporting calendar and popular and erroneous claims that Boxing Day originated with boxing. There are full programmes of football and rugby playing with local rivals in England in the Premier League, Ireland in the Irish Premier League and Scotland in the Scottish Premier League, in African Commonwealth countries hold fighting contests such as Tanzania, Ghana, Uganda, Zambia,etc. In England both The King George VI Chase in horse racing is held every year at Kempton Park Racecourse (Surrey) and the fox hunting (after it was forbidden by the Hunting Act in 2004 in living animals) using scented drag trails are quite popular on this date. It also starts in Canada the most famous tournament of ice hockey and in Australia begins the Sydney Yacht Race and holds the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. However, most people spend the day shopping due to the low prices in shops, merchants also have decreased prices dramatically with recession and their revenues for sales are usually the best throughout the year, many retailers offer also the same discounts on line or during the all week, thus launching discounts for January. We often watch on the tv news the early rush of shop hunters; they stay waiting very early typically at dawn the opening of shops to grab the discounted items in stores because the most valuable ones are limited. The mass media spread the images of shoppers queueing up and later leaving happily with the purchased items, the rush becomes often a stampede due to the cold or hot weather the early and eager shoppers endure outdoors or even injuries occurring among an uncontrolled crowd searching big deals in a store.