Talk:Boxing Day/Archives/2014

Typo in fourth paragraph

..."and maybe sometimes leftover food."

should likely read:

"and sometimes leftover food."

(without quotes, of course)

Deekin (talk) 04:53, 27 December 2013 (UTC) Deekin Deekin (talk) 04:53, 27 December 2013 (UTC)

Wren's Day?

"It is also known as both St. Stephen's Day and the Day of the Wren or Wren's Day in Ireland." I am in my 60s and have lived in Ireland all my life and have never heard of St Stephen's Day being referred to as "Wren's Day" or "The Day of the Wren". I have never heard of anyone referring to it as anything other that St Stephen's Day. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.111.234.111 (talk) 20:12, 6 December 2014 (UTC)

I am from Ireland too, and I have heard it, here and here are two links for you. Murry1975 (talk) 20:26, 6 December 2014 (UTC)

Age of the name "Boxing Day"

Can anyone provide an old literary citation or newsclipping that would date the "Boxing Day" name to having been used "at least as early as ..." ? See this article for an example of what I mean: [1] 104.32.193.6 (talk) 17:01, 13 December 2014 (UTC)

Trading Places ???

There is/was a British/Canadian tradition of officers and enlisted men trading places (as much as practical) for the day, which is in turn supposed to originate from an older tradition of servants and employers trading places, which I suspect is related to the tradition of servants coming to the front door and being greeted by their employer with gifts. I do not currently have any citable sources yet this was so common I am sure there must be some. What I find odd is that these traditions (except the last) are not even mentioned in this article. 104.32.193.6 (talk) 17:12, 13 December 2014 (UTC)

I tried doing a quick bit of digging and found the following intriguing reference (also without supporting documentation sadly...

Happy Boxing Day! It would seem, especially to us Yanks, that Boxing Day might refer to the day you beat the cr@p out of your annoying relatives.. but NO! It instead refers to the day that servants of the rich were traditionally given gifts - well that's one explanation. It's also Saint Stephen's Day - celebrated in Italy for sure. The tradition of giving gifts on this day harkens all the way back to the Romans, celebrating 'Saturnalia' and not only giving servants gifts, but also trading places with them for one day a year. (emphasis added)

104.32.193.6 (talk) 17:36, 13 December 2014 (UTC)

Someone's facebook page is not a reliable source even if they call them self The Language Chef. Walter Görlitz (talk) 18:39, 13 December 2014 (UTC)

Which is why I said "without supporting documentation" of course. 104.32.193.6 (talk) 22:51, 30 December 2014 (UTC)