Boxing Day: A strange phenomenon…..
Boxing Day is a strange phenomenon in itself. Try explaining it to your Thai partner. Still, it could be worse…
In the year 813 it was decided that the celebration of Christmas should last four days. Moreover, on all these days it was forbidden to work, because that would bring bad luck (isn't that wonderful superstition). The tradition of Fourth Christmas Day did not last long. In 1773 the Dutch government also decided to abolish Third Christmas Day. There were even plans not to celebrate Boxing Day anymore, but in the end that was not the case. In 1964, both Christmas days were declared official days off for all Dutch people.
Boxing Day
Boxing Day is mainly celebrated in European countries. In the rest of the world hardly or not at all. It is an official holiday in the following countries: Belgium (German-speaking Community), Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, France (Alsace-Lorraine), Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Italy (Santo Stefano), Croatia , Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain (Catalonia), the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Switzerland (not in the French-speaking cantons).
Boxing Day
In Commonwealth countries, Boxing Day is called Boxing Day. In the course of the Middle Ages, another Boxing Day tradition emerged in Britain: Boxing Day. This name is said to be derived from the box that many nobles gave their servants home on that day. On Christmas Day, these servants simply had to work, but in return they often got the day after Christmas off from their masters. As a thank you, the loyal employees also received a box with all kinds of gifts and leftovers to take home, a kind of medieval forerunner of the Christmas package.
Nowadays, Boxing Day is mainly known as an important day in football and rugby leagues and many other sports competitions are also organized (including horse racing, sailing, basketball and ice hockey). Traditionally, this is also a day when much is hunted by the British aristocracy (fox hunting).
Another important phenomenon on Boxing Day is the sale. The British holiday can be compared to the American Black Friday after Thanksgiving. If you don't mind standing in line, you can take advantage of high discounts.
Visit furniture boulevard and in-laws
In the Netherlands, Boxing Day has become more of a shopping Sunday. Many shops are open (not this year due to the lockdown) and the day is often used for fun shopping. The clothing stores even start selling winter clothing. I will not be surprised if Boxing Day will also make its appearance here in the Netherlands, commerce will take care of that.
The tradition of standing in a traffic jam to the furniture boulevard or being obliged to visit the parents-in-law seems to be slowly ebbing away. There are plenty of alternatives, especially with the arrival of streaming services such as Netflix. Boxing Day will therefore be a day of binge watching for many Dutch people.
I have no idea how the Belgians celebrate Boxing Day, but maybe the Belgian readers can tell?
Boxing Day is a normal working day.
Indeed. normal working day. But if you had time off anyway, this day was often used to visit the rest of the family. Parents or in-laws on Christmas Day and the rest followed later. At least that's how it was with us.
since my father was a beamer, he usually had the day off on Boxing Day.
Boxing Day is a normal working day in Belgium, although many also take a week's leave, overtime or compensation days.
But of course there are also a lot of people who are just working, just like on any other working day.
Banks are normally closed on December 25 and 26.
The government is on holiday on December 25 and 26.
Holidays that fall on a Saturday or Sunday during the year are also compensated by the government between 27 and 31 December.
It is therefore possible that certain government services are closed or work with a permanence for urgent matters between Christmas and New Year.
As a soldier I had 3 options during the Christmas or New Year period.
1. On leave/compensation.
2. From watch/permanence.
4. At sea or ashore with the ship somewhere abroad.
My father loved football, but was not allowed on Sundays and Christmas Day
watch a game, because Christian, right? He had to make do with it
Saturday football of Oranje Nassau Almelo. But on Boxing Day it was allowed again.
As a little boy I often went with him to a home game of
Heracles Almelo.
It would be good if the KNVB adopted the English idea and simply forgot about the winter break!
Isn't Christmas Day itself enough? I have never celebrated it and never will. And in Flanders, Boxing Day does not exist. It exists, of course, but it is not celebrated.
It is indeed not officially celebrated in Belgium.
This afternoon we were walking along the Belgian coast – Nieuwpoort – brilliant winter weather by the way.
When we wanted to relax somewhere in the afternoon, with a waffle and a Trappist, there was nowhere to be found. All retirees?
Everyone who has the opportunity is taking the outstanding days off these days and enjoying them together with the children who are now also on Christmas leave.
So no official day off, but the catering industry is doing golden business here.
It is also something different for us than in Thailand.
I'm always glad it's over. Sometimes you don't remember what day it is....Christmas Day or something?
The Christmas lights in BKK, for example, are beautiful. I play this video every year around the holidays. a 7:57Min… dream away video Bangkok Dec 2015 night, 4K
((( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2cq1KrYHng)))
The Mystery of Adam and Eve (((SEX))) Kundalini Energy Robert Sepehr is an anthropologist and author
Hidden behind every great religion and tradition hides a secret, guarded vigorously throughout history, becoming completely forbidden to reveal this mystery to the public. Since ancient times, the symbolic worship of the serpent has been seen in the world's cultures, and it was often given a similar meaning, widely accepted as a symbol of divine wisdom and spiritual purity.
PS. Now I understand why there are balls in the Christmas tree? Ha Ha The power of (((SEX))) energy?
(((https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY1GBOnQe7o)))
All good days
….from the Netherlands
It used to be a public holiday but was later abolished. Usually a holiday is linked to it, otherwise just a working day!
@Nonkelwin what do you mean 'radiant winter weather' ?? It was one of these, a few km from Nieuwpoort
the drizzliest, wet, coldest days of the last decades!! Almost at 15:30 PM
dark ! I think most people today are in a cyber global warming world
to live !
I will always remember Boxing Day of the terrible tsunami that hit us in 2
hit and claimed many thousands of deaths. Exactly 17 years ago.....
I must say emphatically that Boxing Day in Belgium is not an ordinary working day, but a public holiday. Government institutions are always closed, as well as De Post, the financial institutions (banks, etc..)… So it is an official holiday. All government officials, whether federal or city or municipal, are granted furlough. Of course traders are open because they smell that there is something commercial to pick up…. hahaha
Happy Holidays !
Serge
It is certainly not an ordinary working day, but Boxing Day is not a legal holiday in Belgium at all.
Belgium has 10 statutory holidays, in other words, which apply to everyone.
– New Year, January 1
- Easter Monday
– Labor Day, May 1
– Our Lord's Assumption, forty days after Easter
– Pentecost Monday, the day after Pentecost (which in turn falls fifty days after Easter)
– National Day of Belgium, July 21
– Our Lady of the Assumption, August 15
– All Saints' Day, November 1
– Armistice Day, November 11
– Christmas, December 25
This has been supplemented for civil servants on statutory leave days
— All Souls' Day, November 2
– King's Day, November 15
– Boxing Day, December 26
-Community holiday (The De Croo government announced in their government agreement in September 2020 that the communities will be given the opportunity to turn their public holiday into a general holiday)
https://www.wettelijke-feestdagen.be/
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feestdagen_in_Belgi%C3%AB
It is not because some companies are closed on those days that it is also a legal day off for them.
For companies, this is usually a day that is compensated because an earlier holiday fell in a WE or due to overtime or whatever.
Banks call it a Bankholiday, but it is also not a legal holiday for them.
No problem this year, of course, because Boxing Day fell on a Sunday….