What Boxing Day is all about

Dear Matthew Alice: What is Boxing Day? On my calendar it says “December 26, Boxing Day (Canada)." My girlfriend guessed that it was the day you take all your old boxes back to the supermarket. I guessed it was the day you get to punch out everybody who annoyed you in the past year. So just what is Boxing Day? — Wondering, South Park

I’m almost sorry to have to answer this one. Your guesses are much more appealing than the truth, as is often the case. Anyway, Boxing Day is an old British tradition that dates from the time when the world was mostly divided into people who had everything and people who worked for the people who had everything. The Upstairs, Downstairs kind of world. According to the office of the British consul in Los Angeles, the day originated as follows. The “downstairs” crew — maids, butlers, footmen, cooks, etc. — would slave away putting together big Christmas festivities for the “upstairs” bunch on December 25. Then they’d have the next day off, and the lord and lady would give the servants their Christmas gifts and money. The presents were wrapped in very colorful boxes (most likely left over from the day before, upstairs), thus. Boxing Day. Other sources claim the boxes in question are those once carried by tradesmen’s apprentices when they hit up wealthy clients for tips on December 26. At any rate, you get the drift. It was the day to acknowledge “the little people” who toil in our behalf during the year. In modern-day Britain, of cpurse, it’s been shorn of its gift-giving aspect and reduced to essentials: one more day off from work. Boxing Day falls on a Sunday this year, so they’ll take Monday off instead.

The holiday is observed in some but not all parts of Canada. One of M.A.’s French Canadian amigos was pretty much in the dark about what the day was. And I understand it’s not observed in sober, hard-working Scotland.

In a country noted for peculiar celebrations. Boxing Day is one of the saner traditions. Personally, I’d rather show up in Beckworth on Cheese-rolling Day, when hardy Beckworthians race an enormous wheel of Double Gloucester down a treacherously steep hill in an effort to reach the bottom before it does. Or before it careens out of control and runs you over. They’ve been doing it for centuries. And in High Wycombe, mid-May is the time for Mayoral Weighing Day. Townsfolk gather to watch the chief of weights and measures deposit hizzoner in a large scale to see if he’s gained or lost during his tenure. A loss is said to indicate he’s been toiling mightily at his civic duties. A gain says he’s spent too much time on his mayoral backside and is lacking in diligence. A sensible tradition we might consider adopting.