Boxing Day

Boxing Day is a bank or public holiday falling on the day after Christmas on 26^th of December, (which is also Saint Stephen´s day) celebrated in England, Australia, New Zealand and optional in Canada (except in the state of Ontario where workers receive their pay) as well as other Commonwealth countries (in South Africa is called the Day of Good Will). It was established a secular public holiday by the Bank Holidays Act in 1871 throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland as St. Stephen´s Day or the Day of the Wren, whenever the 26 of December falls on Saturday or Sunday the followind day (27^th) is also taken as a bank holiday. The custom began in the Middle Ages throughout Europe when in churches boxes collected alms during the feast of Saint Stephen and it was given later to the needy. In England there was a tradition among employers (nobility, landowners, wealthy bourgueoise) to give their servants the day off to visit their family along with a box full of gifts and food the day after Christmas, this ensured their employers the loyalty of their servants working during the busier days of Christmas Eve and Christmas. Afterwards, in in the industrialised Victorian period was quite popular the custom for tradesmen to receive their Christmas box on the 26 of December, a box with gifts as a reward for their service and reliability for their work during a year.