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Boxing Day is a holiday traditionally celebrated the day following Christmas Day, when servants and tradesmen would receive gifts, known as a "Christmas box", from their bosses or employers, in the United Kingdom, Barbados, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, Bermuda, New Zealand, Kenya, South Africa, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and other former British colonies. Today, Boxing Day is the bank holiday that generally takes place on 26 December. In South Africa, Boxing Day was renamed Day of Goodwill in 1994. Due to the Roman Catholic Church's liturgical calendar, the day is known as St. Stephen's Day to Catholics, as well as in Italy, Finland, and Alsace and Moselle in France. It is also known as both St. Stephen's Day and the Day of the Wren or Wren's Day in Ireland. In some European countries, most notably Germany, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands and those in Scandinavia, 26 December is celebrated as the ''Second Christmas Day''. == Origins == Various competing theories for the origins of the term ''boxing day'' circulate in popular culture, none of which are definitive.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=snopes.com: Boxing Day Origins )〕 However, the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' gives the earliest attestations of the term as being from England in the 1830s, defining it as 'the first week-day after Christmas-day, observed as a holiday on which post-men, errand-boys, and servants of various kinds expect to receive a Christmas-box'.〔"Boxing-day, ''n''.", ''OED Online'', 1st edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1887).〕 The term ''Christmas-box'', meanwhile, dates back to the seventeenth century, and amongst other things meant: :A present or gratuity given at Christmas: in Great Britain, usually confined to gratuities given to those who are supposed to have a vague claim upon the donor for services rendered to him as one of the general public by whom they are employed and paid, or as a customer of their legal employer; the undefined theory being that as they have done offices for this person, for which he has not directly paid them, some direct acknowledgement is becoming at Christmas.〔"Christmas-box, ''n''.", ''OED Online'', 1st edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1889), sense 3.〕 In Britain, it was a custom for tradespeople to collect "Christmas boxes" of money or presents on the first weekday after Christmas as thanks for good service throughout the year.〔Encyclopædia Britannica, 1953 "Boxing day"〕 This is mentioned in Samuel Pepys' diary entry for 19 December 1663.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Saturday 19 December 1663 (Pepys' Diary) )〕 This custom is linked to an older English tradition: since they would have to wait on their masters on Christmas Day, the servants of the wealthy were allowed the next day to visit their families. The employers would give each servant a box to take home containing gifts, bonuses and sometimes leftover food. The European tradition, which has long included giving money and other gifts to those who were needy and in service positions, has been dated to the Middle Ages, but the exact origin is unknown. It is believed to be in reference to the Alms Box placed in areas of worship to collect donations to the poor. Also, 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,〔Collins, 2003, p. 38.〕 which in the Western Church falls on the same day as Boxing Day. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Boxing Day」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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