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that_yeg_guy t1_j1t077a wrote

I don’t think any Canadian/Brit has ever thought Boxing Day was named after the sport.

Most people assume it’s named that way as it’s the day people traditionally started “boxing up” Christmas decorations. (Alternatively, the day businesses started boxing up all their Christmas overstock - hence the sales.)

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krezgobop t1_j1t0uoo wrote

This is what I was told when I was a kid. Although we don’t usually put anything away for another week or so

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777IRON t1_j1tfit3 wrote

I thought it was because you were boxing your fellow shoppers to get to the deals. /s

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Nyghtshayde t1_j1u37c4 wrote

I'm Australian and I thought maybe it was somehow associated with the sport until I was about 16 and a Canadian girl explained the bit about boxing presents. In my defense, very few people box up presents here.

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dirtmother t1_j1u1ben wrote

I thought it had something to do with the Chinese Boxer rebellion. No, I have no idea why I thought that.

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Jasong222 OP t1_j1t14zr wrote

I swear for years I thought it was something with boxing the sport. I have some memory of seeing a movie, maybe something like Snatch or Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, or something where they talk about boxing day as the day that 'things go down' and then the next day they're at a ritzy boxing event.

But probably I just jammed that memory together from who knows where.

edit: Yes, punish me for not knowing something, the entire point of this sub. I don't quite feel properly chastised yet.

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Tank905 t1_j1taq7h wrote

The poor, but also servants, subordinates, etc. The well-to-do exchanged gifts with their peers on Christmas Day and those of lower rank on Boxing Day.

There are several origin stories for the term Boxing Day, but none have anything to do with pugilism.

  • Presenting boxed gifts as mentioned.
  • Giving serfs their annual allotment of goods (in crates or boxes).
  • Employers putting coins into special boxes for employees.
  • Church collection boxes.
  • Etc.
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Downtown-Regret-505 t1_j1sxfk7 wrote

Being good with your fists comes in handy when squaring off against fellow bargain hunters though.

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UsefulEngine1 t1_j1t03a9 wrote

Gotta ask how you imagined the day goes in the UK

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Jasong222 OP t1_j1t21vi wrote

Some big-ish name boxing event(s), like in the US how (American) football is big on Thanksgiving or something.

Why would you still call it that day if no one does the thing it's named after any more?

I always thought it was kind of a big holiday, but it sounds just like our Black Friday. Which is a day we talk about but we don't really use it as a reference point for other things in conversation. (We don't say, let's meet on Friday. Oh, black Friday? Sure I'll meet you at the restaurant)

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SaveThePatrat t1_j1tvhox wrote

"Why do we call it Thursday when we no longer worship Thor?"

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Dinoz4dayz t1_j1t9mfp wrote

Nope - no boxing matches or anything like that. One team might have a football game on/planned, but that's not a national thing.

It's usually just a day to eat leftovers with the family, and maybe go into town to the shops with the boxing day sales (good time to buy next year's Christmas decor at 50% off).

Never had any connection to Boxing the sport.

Boxing gifts for the poor was it's origin.

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FinancialYou4519 t1_j1tcgpv wrote

Premier League has always(?) had great fixtures for boxing day, thought that was tradition at least

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Dinoz4dayz t1_j1tcmv5 wrote

Never knew anyone who liked football growing up, so certainly in my family/friends families, it wasn't a thing. Maybe one tv in one room an uncle watched, but it wasn't an event.

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Jasong222 OP t1_j1tc54f wrote

Sure, I get that, that’s why I thought it would make a decent post. For sure I’ve never heard it explained, just assumed it somewhere from something on tv or in the movies

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jetloflin t1_j1vp6mg wrote

In what way does Boxing Day sound like Black Friday? The only thing they have in common that I know of is being the day after another holiday.

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Peterd1900 t1_j1vqxx7 wrote

I suppose they are both known for their sales

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jetloflin t1_j1vr90i wrote

Interesting. I watch a fair amount of British tv and haven’t heard about that, but I must’ve missed it. I doubt it’s quite as bad as Black Friday though.

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Peterd1900 t1_j1vtekx wrote

The traditional Boxing Day sales in the United Kingdom were never as large an event as the Black Friday sales are in the United States

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grammarkink t1_j1thlu0 wrote

There needs to be a TIL for grade schoolers and a separate one for adults with basic grade school knowledge of the world.

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jetloflin t1_j1vpfb3 wrote

Or people could learn to just scroll past posts about things they already knew, rather than insulting strangers on the internet for learning something. Why chastise someone for learning?

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grammarkink t1_j1vz7cd wrote

I didn't chastise anyone. Look up words you don't know before using them.

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jetloflin t1_j1w1wce wrote

Oh yeah, cuz suggesting OP is a grade schooler because they didn’t know something you knew is a super polite and constructive comment.

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grammarkink t1_j1w255h wrote

Honestly, you're right. I think I need to unsubscribe from this sub.

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somefakeassbullspit t1_j1t2eeg wrote

Uh, no man. It's the day all the servents got after they served the royalty for xmas

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[deleted] t1_j1t2156 wrote

[deleted]

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Jasong222 OP t1_j1t275s wrote

I'm against animal cruelty

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[deleted] t1_j1t4e8b wrote

[deleted]

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FinancialYou4519 t1_j1tc9pg wrote

Is this a real sentence?

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Apellosine t1_j1u6sre wrote

It could be, this year's boxing day test match was between Australia and South Africa. 2/231 means that Australia has scored 231 runs while only having 2 outs in the first innings of the test match. South Africa being all out for 189 is quite a low score for a single innings in a test match too and is also what they scored this year.

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BillTowne t1_j1vyir6 wrote

TIL: The name "Christmas" has to do with a Catholic religious service and has nothing to do with how fat Jesus is.

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jl_theprofessor t1_j1tein9 wrote

lol. I didn't realize this was a misunderstanding among people.

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ChipotleBanana t1_j1txvxx wrote

It's not a common phrase outside of british anglophone countries.

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cmdrkyla t1_j1tdp11 wrote

I thought it was about the sport too, like the Super Bowl for boxing in Canada or something lol

I'm 39 years old..... 😳

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Erebus1197 t1_j1tk60b wrote

Not quite. it's named after the practise of opening the alms boxes (containing money that is to be given to the poor) from the church. This was done after Christmas day (compared to before), as people were usually more generous...

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haybai81 t1_j1togv5 wrote

I was told it was the day alms boxes were opened at churches to give to the poor.

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bigbangbilly t1_j1ud2cs wrote

Just like how soccer has nothing to do with socking someone in the face (if played properly and away from football hooligans)

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TheOnlyBilko t1_j1uxksu wrote

Thought it was a day that Canadians sat around and watched Boxing all day on TV and chowed down on Turkey leftovers 🥊🥊

Seriously kinda disappointed now that it's not a day dedicated to watching Boxing 🥊🥊

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MisterMarcus t1_j1w4x9z wrote

> Thought it was a day that Canadians sat around and watched Boxing all day on TV and chowed down on Turkey leftovers 🥊🥊

If you're talking Australia, it's pretty much this except with cricket instead of boxing.

Should rename it 'Cricket Day'.

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Landlubber77 t1_j1szfyu wrote

Alexa taught me this with today's Question of the Day. The giving to the poor thing, not the boxing lol, did people think this was a holiday about the sport of boxing?

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Jasong222 OP t1_j1t1k1v wrote

I had just changed her voice to Indian just to play around and I didn't really understand the question. I thought she was giving me UK trivia because I changed her voice. So I changed it back and asked again but I got the same question. But I understood it better this time. And apparently you can answer again and it will still say you're in the top whatever percent to get it right.

In summary, this is totally for sure not where I also got this til from.

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Landlubber77 t1_j1t23l3 wrote

We just changed our Alexa back to her woman voice after getting tired of the dude's voice we changed it to a while back. After the Boxing Day question her second question was about Steve Irwin having a favorite tortoise from the Galápagos Islands which I'm 100% certain has already been a question of the day she's asked before. I've never heard her repeat a question, I almost felt bad taking the points she gave me for getting it right. Then again those points are about as useful/real as Reddit karma so I'm not gonna lose sleep over it.

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Jasong222 OP t1_j1t2lkq wrote

I've only used it two days and I'm already starting to get sick of her offering me to link up with Are You Smarter Than a Sixth Grader questions. I also kinda want her to ask me outright. Eg I don't want to have to ask her to ask me today's question.

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Landlubber77 t1_j1t4e9t wrote

She never stops. She's like Samara if there was a sequel called The Ring: Doorbell.

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SpittingFeathersToo t1_j1u0o4j wrote

If you go into town boxing day night then I can assure you the latter meaning is more appropriate

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Apellosine t1_j1u6g61 wrote

Boxing day in Commonwealth countries you mean?

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Techwood111 t1_j1uhdxl wrote

OMFG what took you so long?!?

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hlessi_newt t1_j1uj2ua wrote

The joke is on the poor then. They have to box me for the box of stuff from boxing day

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fasting4me t1_j1umgms wrote

I herd Boxing Day was when everyone pack up all the Christmas leftovers and eat them together with friends and family.

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lastskudbook t1_j1unlsa wrote

Got a mate in the police,he says it’s called Boxing Day for good reason.

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CrieDeCoeur t1_j1uolsh wrote

Well we kept the name anyway

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KimmiG1 t1_j1ushxc wrote

The name is from people boxing down the family if they try distracting them from watching football.

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Amity83 t1_j1vkry2 wrote

Are you 10?

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GoGaslightYerself t1_j1vlmm3 wrote

> ... and has nothing to do with boxing the sport

On the other hand, in Peru...

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fgsgeneg t1_j1w2hge wrote

And here I thought it's the day bigger children beat the stuffing out of the little ones and steal their presents.

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TheBatemanFlex t1_j1whxp2 wrote

I’m more curious about why someone thought it had to do with the sport of boxing.

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kyle_750 t1_j1wsnyz wrote

Lol wtf Nobody thinks it's about boxing the sport

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LOCKN355 t1_j1xhxwl wrote

I thought it was a day for getting rid of your boxes and packaging. Like you gather up all of the cardboard and wrapping paper and set it all out with your trash for pick up. You know, give people a chance to clean up after all of the celebrating.

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MyAccountWasBanned7 t1_j1uh4g9 wrote

Did snyone ever think it was related to boxing the sport? Is this really a TIL? Seems more just like common knowledge.

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JudasIsAGrass t1_j1uh9nv wrote

Not a single person in the UK thought/thinks it had anything to do with Boxing. If anything people assumed it was meaning the day you put decorations away.

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Svendog_Millionaire t1_j1us9mb wrote

Hahahahaha who thought it was to do with the sport. Jesus we’re getting dumber as a species.

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TheOnlyBilko t1_j1uwzoa wrote

Well if you're not from Canada or Britian u have no idea what it is and just assume it's a day to watch a bunch of Boxing matches on TV while you eat leftover Turkey & mashed potatoes & stuffing 🥊🥊🥊

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wrextnight t1_j1td5to wrote

I thought it had to do with killing Chinese folks?

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grammarkink t1_j1thwro wrote

I think you're confusing it with Boxer Rebellion? Where Chinese Christians and missionaries were killed in China?

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UsefulEngine1 t1_j1untzg wrote

Always assumed that had something to do with dog breeders

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kokopilau t1_j1sysrq wrote

And it has nothing to do with the poor.

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NicNoletree t1_j1t143n wrote

Yes it does. It's when the rich put their boxing gloves back on and resume pummeling the poor.

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dan6776 t1_j1ujalo wrote

Its England Of course its going to do with the poor or working class.

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