Daily bread 12/26/2017

• Listen Notes: Best podcast search engine & podcast database

  tags: podcast_search_engine

• Why is it called Boxing Day? You asked Google – here’s the answer | Stephen Moss | Opinion | The Guardian

  • Why is it called Boxing Day?
  • nothing to do with boxing, or with putting used wrapping paper into boxes, or with boxing up all your unwanted presents
  • in small acts of kindness
  • The origins of Boxing Day lie
  • the name derives from the giving of Christmas “boxes”
  • churches in the Middle Ages. Parishioners collected money for the poor in alms boxes, and these were opened on the day after Christmas in honour of St Stephen, the first Christian martyr, whose feast day falls on 26 December.
  • Christianised late Roman empire, when similar collections were supposedly made for the poor in honour of St Stephen
  • St Stephen’s Day became associated with public acts of charity.
  • giving Christmas boxes – commonly a small gift or some money – to tradespeople who had provided them with good service
  • tradition of giving Christmas boxes to tradespeople was still extant a generation ago but is now disappearing
  • Christmas really isn’t what it used to be.
  • Boxing Day is primarily a British tradition, and the UK has exported it to Australia, Canada and New Zealand (in each of which it has become primarily a shopping and sporting day)

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