The Pittsburgh Press (December 26, 1945)
Background of news –
Boxing Day
By Buel W. Patch
With December 25 falling on a Tuesday, the day before Christmas was a holiday this year for many American workers. The day after Christmas always is a holiday in England and all of the British dominions except Canada.
Boxing Day, as the British call it, was made a legal holiday in 1871. But the day had been celebrated unofficially for many years before that.
The boxing in Boxing Day has to do with boxes, not fisticuffs. By tradition the day after Christmas is the day for giving Christmas boxes, or their equivalent, to domestic servants, the postman, the trash collector, shop clerks and others.
It has been related that in former times the demanding attitude of some of those in line for such largesse made Boxing Day a great nuisance. But a 19th century writer (R. Chambers, “The Book of Days”) defended the custom:
“We must not be too hard on the system of Christmas boxes…That many abuses did and still do cling to them, we readily admit; but there is also intermingled with them a spirit of kindliness and benevolence, which it would be very undesirable to extirpate.”
Emphasis on New Year’s
Boxing Day is not a holiday in Scotland, but boxes, called “handsets” north of the Tweed, are given out there after New Year’s Day.
The Scots, like the French and some other Europeans, make more of New Year’s than of Christmas. Presents used to be given in most countries at New Year’s rather than at Christmas.
In England, it was the custom of the king’s subjects to give New Year’s gifts to their sovereign. The Puritans put a stop to that. They also put a damper on the celebration of Christmas, which they regarded as a heathen festival: An act of 1644 made Christmas a market day and required shops to stay open for business.
Puritans in America were even more severe. In 1659, the General Court of Massachusetts passed a law making observance of Christmas a penal offense.
New Year’s Day was celebrated on December 25 in Anglo-Saxon England. It was moved up to January 1 when William the Conqueror’s coronation was arranged for that date. Later the holiday was shifted to March 25, the day then celebrated as New Year’s throughout the rest of Christendom. It was only with the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1582 that January 1 became New Year’s Day in all Catholic countries, and the change was not accepted in England until 1751.
Festivity and merriment
Although the early Christians kept the first day of the year by fasting and meditation, the New Year’s observance long since became characterized generally by festivity and merriment. In old England on New Year’s Eve, healths were drunk from a bowl of hot spiced ale or wine, sometimes called lamb’s wool. The wassail bowl derived its name from the Saxon phrase, “Wass hael” – To your health!
The custom of paying calls on New Year’s Day was introduced in this country by the Dutch settlers in New Amsterdam. The custom spread to other cities. And from the time of George Washington until the practice was discontinued by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1934, New Year’s Day was the occasion when the president held open house for the public.
On January 1, 1791, when the capital was still in Philadelphia, one of the Pennsylvania senators recorded in his diary: “Made the President the compliments of the season; had a hearty shake of the hand. I was asked to partake of the punch and cakes, but declined. I sat down and we had some chat. But the diplomatic gentry and foreigners coming in, I embraced the first vacancy to make my bow and wish him a good morning.”
The senator apparently was a prohibitionist and an isolationist.