A New Zealand Bush Wren, or Mātuhituhi. Safe from having its feathers sold on Boxing Day.
A New Zealand Bush Wren, or Mātuhituhi. Safe from having its feathers sold on Boxing Day.
MUSEUM NOTEBOOK
The day after Christmas Day often passes in a blur of leftovers, forgotten presents, and rampant consumerism as bargain hunters take advantage of the Boxing Day sales. But the origins of Boxing Day, or St Stephen's Day, are far more humble.
St Stephen's Day is celebrated on December26 and commemorates Stephen, a Christian archdeacon known for service to the poor.
He was condemned for blasphemy and stoned to death in AD36, making him the first Christian martyr.
December 26 was chosen as his feast day as it was on this day in 415AD that his previously lost relics were rediscovered.
On Wren Day Irish children would kill a wren and take it from door to door selling the feathers which people believed would bring them luck.
Today, participants wear old clothes and straw hats and carry fake wrens, dancing and singing from door to door.
In New Zealand, we are more familiar with celebrating December 26 as Boxing Day, a custom which began in England during the Middle Ages when it became customary to give money, food and gifts to those in need the day after Christmas.
Items were often placed in the Alms Box of Churches, and then used to prepare food and gifts for the poor on St Stephen's Day.
We recall Good King Wenceslas, who was enjoying his St Stephen's Day feast when he saw a poor man gathering wood.
The good king decided to follow the man and give him food and firewood, but his servant nearly froze in the snow until he trod in his master's saintly footsteps and was able to find the warmth and strength to continue their mission.
This carol is based on the 10th century Bohemian King Venceslav and was set to music in 1853.
An Edison Gold Moulded phonograph cylinder of Good King Wenceslas, 1902-1912. A classic Christmas Carol.
In the Middle Ages wealthy households would keep their servants working on Christmas Day to serve the family and their guests, preparing the feast and decorations, but they would be granted the following day off to visit their own families.
Their employers would present them with a box to take with them which contained gifts, money, and sometimes leftover food.
The term "Christmas Boxes" was first printed in the 1663 diary of Samuel Pepys, where he records tradesmen collecting "Christmas Boxes" on the first working day after Christmas.
These boxes were given out by employers as a gesture of thanks for the year's work, and contained gifts and money.
The term "Boxing Day" was first printed in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1833, defining it as the first weekday after Christmas which was treated as a holiday where certain staff were presented with a Christmas Box.
The term was printed in Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers four years later, and is now common parlance.
Aside from giving to those less fortunate, other customs have been carried out on Boxing Day. One tradition in Wales involves beating late sleepers with holly branches, believing it brought luck to the beater – a custom I'm sure many of us would appreciate is no longer practised as we enjoy a lazy holiday morning.
A festive greeting card with a border of holly. Luckily it's not a Welsh card and the holly is not intended as a threat for those planning to lie in on Boxing Day.
A more familiar custom is carried out in Catalonia on St Stephen's Day where a feast is prepared using leftover food from Christmas Day.
•Sandi Black is the archivist at Whanganui Regional Museum.
