Boxing Day and Hogmanay

We all know that Boxing Day is the day after Christmas Day, We all know too that it is a great day for taking it easy and recovering from the activities associated with Christmas Day.

Many of us also know that the reasons for it's name are not clear, but may have something to do with boxes given to staff as they went home the day after Christmas having been working to ensure their employers had a thoroughly enjoyable Christams.

But did you also know that alms boxes were placed in churches on Christmas Day and that these were opened the day after and the contents distributed amongst the poor of the parish?

Or that during the Age of Exploration ships would carry 'lucky' Christmas Boxes? These boxes would be placed on the ship by the preist before it left port and sailors would be encouraged to drop coins in to it. The box was then sealed and kept on board for the length of the voyage. If the ship returned safely to port the sealed box was handed back to the priest who kept it sealed until the next Christmas when it would be opened and the contents distributed to the poor.

Boxing Day is alos known as St Stephen's day and as such is the day on which Good King Wenslaslass looked out!

Scotland celebrates New Year as Hogmanay, and is celebrated greatly across the country with several different customs, such as First Footing, which involves friends or family members going to each others houses with a gift of whisky and sometimes a lump of coal. Other cities across Scotland, such as Aberdeen, Glasgow, and Stirling also have celebrations, also with fireworks at midnight.

Edinburgh has one of the world's most famous New Year celebrations with the focus being a major street party along Princes Street. The cannon is fired at Edinburgh Castle at the stroke of midnight and is followed by a large fireworks display. Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, hosts a full 4 or 5 day festival stretching from the 28th to either New Year's Day or 2 January, which is also a Bank holiday in Scotland, unlike the rest of the United Kingdom.