Boxing Day is traditionally the day following Christmas Day, when servants and tradespeople would receive gifts from their superiors or employers.

It may come from a custom in the late Roman / early Christian era, wherein metal boxes placed outside churches were used to collect special offerings tied to the Feast of Saint Stephen, which in the Western Church falls on the same day as Boxing Day.

Boxing Day is a secular holiday that is traditionally celebrated on 26 December, the day after Christmas Day, which is also St. Stephen's Day, a religious holiday.

However, Boxing Day is still celebrated the day following Christmas Day for many British people.

Nowadays Boxing Day is popular in Australia as the first day of a Test cricket match held at the MCG.

In Britain, Canada, New Zealand and some states of Australia, Boxing Day is primarily known as a shopping holiday, much like the day after Thanksgiving in the United States.

For many merchants, Boxing Day has become the day of the year with the greatest revenue.

In recent years, retailers have expanded deals to " Boxing Week ", and some stores even have " half way to boxing day sales " on 26 June.

Marie and Sudbury ), most retailers are prohibited from opening on Boxing Day, either by provincial law or municipal bylaw, or instead by informal agreement among major retailers in order to provide a day of relaxation following Christmas Day.

Boxing Day is a popular day in the UK and U. S. for mounted fox hunters.

Australia holds the first day of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the start to the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.

sv: Boxing day

Hobart is internationally famous among the yachting community as the finish of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race which starts in Sydney on Boxing Day ( the day after Christmas Day ).

Boxing Day 2003 marked both a bright and dark day for the Thrashers.

After South Africa withheld the Australian bowling on the final day to secure a draw in the Boxing Day Test, Australia took a 1 – 0 lead in the New Year's Test at Sydney with an innings victory.

Multi-award winning artist Richard T. Slone was named their official artist of the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1997 and remains so to this day.

The most well known chant is probably " Hark now here, the Wednesday sing, United ran away, and we will fight forever more, because of Boxing day ", a song about the 1979 Boxing Day Massacre, or " I've never felt more like singing the blues, when Wednesday win, United lose, oh Wednesday, you've got me singing the blues – Wack a blade – Wack a blade – Wack a blade ", sung on days when Wednesday have won their game, and United have lost theirs.

A record Third Division crowd of 49, 309 supporters watched Wednesday beat United 4 – 0, a match which became part of Sheffield Wednesday folklore, and is still sung about loudly at every game today ; ' Hark now hear, The Wednesday sing, United ran away ... and we will fight, forever more, because of Boxing day '

The date is also a Public Holiday in those countries that celebrate Boxing Day on the day instead / as well.

No stranger to the NC-17 ratings, Lynch, who responded to the ruling a day later also saw cuts made to her movie Boxing Helena.

On this day, most major retailers open extremely early, often at 4 a. m., or earlier, and offer promotional sales to kick off the shopping season, similar to Boxing Day sales in many Commonwealth Nations.

In 2009 several major Canadian retailers had their own version of the day by running promotions to discourage shoppers from leaving for the U. S. Canada's Boxing Day is comparable to Black Friday in terms of retailer impact and consumerism, but Black Fridays in the U. S. seem to provide deeper or more extreme price cuts than Canadian retailers, even for the same international retailer.

Boxing Day ( 26 December ) is a national holiday in many Commonwealth nations, being the first full day of Christmas.

Every year on Boxing Day ( 26 December ) Grantchester holds an inter-village barrel race which is around 40 minutes long and ends with a hog roast at the Rupert Brooke pub, named after the poet.

Clark had made an earlier FJ appearance in a one-off race at Brands Hatch on Boxing Day, 1959, driving a Gemini-B. M. C.

They include Welterweight Boxing Champion Storer College ( 1925 – 27 ); High Jump champion, Howard University Inter-Scholastic Games ( 1926 ); Gold Medalist in Cross Country, Storer College ( 1927 ); Back-stroke Swimming Champion and No. 3 swimmer in Freestyle Relay team, Howard University ( 1928 ); Captain, Lincoln University Soccer Team ( 1930 ); Winner Two Miles Run, Central Inter-Collegiate Athletic Association Championships at Hampton Institute Virginia ( 1931 ); Bronze Medalist, Richmond Cross Country Marathon ( 1931 ); Gold Medalist in the 1, 000 yard run, One Mile Run and Three Mile Run, Catedonian Games in Brooklyn, NY ( 1932 ); Silver Trophy winner in the Half Mile race, and Silver Cup winner in the One Mile Race, Democratic Field Day Championships, New Haven, Connecticut ( 1933 ); Runner-up ( with G. K. Dorgu ) at the Lagos Tennis Men ’ s Double Championships ( Division B 1938 ); anchor man for the ZAC team which won the 50 yards Freestyle Relay at the Lagos Swimming Championships ( 1939 ).

An AGP style event was held on Boxing Day, 1936 at the South Australian town of Victor Harbor for a centennial South Australian Grand Prix before the Australian Grand Prix title was revived in 1938 for the grand opening of what would become one of the world's most famous race tracks, Mount Panorama just outside of the semi-rural town of Bathurst.

The Type 47 is fondly remembered for taking both first and second places ( driven by John Miles and Jackie Oliver, respectively ) in its very first race held at the storied Brands Hatch race course on Boxing Day.

Drouin's main race meeting is on Boxing Day, with the feature race being the Drouin Cup.

Regular updates on the annual Boxing Day Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race are broadcast during the duration of the race.

For example, weather patterns bringing snow falls on Boxing day and the following day in 1998 caused loss of life in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race that year.

Penshurst has a horse racing club, the Penshurst & District Racing Club, which schedules one race meeting a year, the Penshurst Cup meeting on Boxing Day ( 26 December ).

Drouin has a picnic horse racing club, the Drouin Picnic Racing Club, which holds two race meetings a year with the Drouin Cup on Boxing Day ( 26 December ).

After its May debut, the race was soon moved to New Year's Day, and then finally to Boxing Day.

Boxing evolved from 16th and 18th century prizefights ( detailed further down the page ), largely in Great Britain, to the forerunner of modern boxing in the mid 19th century, again initially in Great Britain and later in the United States.

Instead of going up in weight, like most boxers throughout history have done after losing the title in their original division, Ortiz went down in weight, and challenged world champion Joe Brown ( also a member of the International Boxing Hall Of Fame ).

His first United goal came in a 1 – 1 draw against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on 19 December 1992, and his second came on Boxing Day in a 3 – 3 draw against Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough where they claimed a point after being 3 – 0 down at half time.

Bentt knocked Morrison down three times, and the fight was stopped in the first round in front of a live HBO Boxing audience.

Hussey claimed his first Test wicket against South Africa on the third day of the 2008 Boxing Day Test at the MCG, when Paul Harris skied a ball over Mitchell Johnson's head and the latter ran back and took a running catch as the ball fell down past his shoulder.

On 8 February 2012 Williams was supposed to fight Richard Tutaki for the vacant New Zealand Professional Boxing Association ( NZPBA ) Heavyweight Championship title at Claudelands Arena in Hamilton, after Shane Cameron vacated it to move down to the cruiserweight division.

After losing at home to Aldershot Town on Boxing Day, Fairclough decided it was time to step down after the game at Bournemouth on 28 December.