Why is boxing day called boxing day?
It was traditionally the day when the church alms-boxes were opened for the benfit of the needy, and this is one of the origins of the name. Alms-seekers also went from house to house with personal boxes, like piggy-banks. When one-to-one gifts became the norm, employers handed out ‘Christmas Boxes’ – sums of money – to their workers; and the phrase came to mean any gift given in the festive season, especially to milkmen, dustmen and others whose trade brought them regulatlry to people’s homes. The actual name Boxing Day only appears to have been coined last century; though the Romans also had a money-giving custom at this time of year.
