Boxing Day
It is common to spend the day with family members or friends as a sort of 'second' Christmas Day, where presents may be exchanged, the left-overs of the previous day are eaten or another family meal is prepared in celebration.
Boxing Day is a day when stores launch one of the year's biggest sales periods. Boxing Day has become so important for retailers that they often extend it into a "Boxing Week".
Boxing Day in the UK is traditionally a day for sporting activity, originally fox hunting, but as this is now banned (in some parts of the UK, and also to a certain extent - see article), alternative hunts take place. Football, horse racing and Rugby (both codes) are also played. Boxing Day is also the start of the IIHF World Junior Ice Hockey Championship.
List of Boxing Day sporting events:
- English, Welsh and Scottish football matches
- Boxing Day Dip - in certain UK coastal towns (including Hartlepool, Hastings, Sunderland, Whitby, Tenby and most coastal parts of Cornwall), people wade into the sea on Boxing Day - often in fancy dress, and usually to raise money for a local charity.[citation needed]
- Football Matches are played in Northern Ireland
- Boxing Matches are normally played on the Sports channels
- Derby Magners League rugby matches played in Wales and Scotland
- Horse racing meetings take place across the country. The most famous regular Boxing Day meet is the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park in Surrey.
- Hunts often take place in England.
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References
- ^ American Heritage Dictionary, Fourth Edition - 'Boxing Day'
- ^ Oxford English
- ^ http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/boxing.asp
- ^ Havey, Paul. "Christmas-box" in The Oxford Companion to English Literature. London: Oxford University Press, 1967.
- ^ A popular medieval tradition, as illustrated by Grimm's Fairy Tales No. 171[1]
- ^ BBC Radio 4 schedule, December 26, 2004
- ^ Bank Holidays Act 1871 (UK and Republic of Ireland)
- ^ Banks and Bank Holidays Act (NSW) 1912 - Fourth Schedule
- ^ Holidays Act (Qld) 1983
- ^ DTI information on Bank and public holidays in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Note that a 'substitute Bank Holiday in lieu of 26 December' is only possible in Northern Ireland, reflecting the legal difference in that St. Stephen's Day does not automatically shift to the Monday in the same way as Boxing Day.
- ^ Public Holidays
- ^ Nova Scotia backs Liberal bill to ban shopping on Boxing Day, Christmas Day
- ^ For instance, on Boxing Day 2006, the Canadian Press moved an article titled "N.S. shoppers out of luck as millions elsewhere in Canada hit Boxing Day sales", which did not note the mandatory closures in the other Atlantic provinces.
- ^ General Holidays and General Holiday Pay
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External links
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