Boxing day 26 Boxing Day is a public holiday celebrated on 26 December, the day after the Christmas festival.
The public holiday is observed as an event on the day after Christmas i.e. 26 December.
Boxing Day is mostly celebrated in England and Commonwealth countries. Commonwealth countries are those countries which were colonies of England sometime in the past and England ruled them. In all countries where Christianity is the predominant religion, there is a practice of celebrating ‘Boxing Day’.
There are many beliefs behind celebrating Boxing Day. According to one belief, gifts were given by loved ones and friends to all the people of Christmas. In those gifts which were not of their use, or came in excess, people used to keep those gifts in boxes and keep them outside the door of their house.
The thing which was needed by the needy person. He used to take it out of the box. In this way, that gift used to be useful to some poor or needy person. Gradually, a custom took hold and it came to be known as ‘Boxing Day’.
According to another belief, on Christmas day the owners of the company used to provide bonus to their employees and they were given holiday on the next day of Christmas along with bonus and some gifts were given in the box. For this reason, this day came to be known as ‘Boxing Day’.
This day was celebrated in most of the Commonwealth countries. What began as a traditional practice, the day soon became associated with sports as well. Especially with the game of cricket, this day became specially associated and the test match was played in the name of ‘Boxing Day Test’. This day has traditionally become a mandatory event in countries like Australia, New Zealand.
Now this day has also become a special day in these countries as a shopping day. On this day, people shop fiercely, as in India, people usually shop fiercely on the day of festivals like Dhanteras or on the day of Diwali, similarly in western countries, people shop on Boxing Day and on this day shopkeepers like Different types of cells are used.