Dear LPG,

I hope that everyone had a happy Christmas yesterday.  Too many of us will have spent it alone again this year while others will have saved their presents for the big day. I know that I am supposed to be older now and more sedate, but I am still one of those that gets excited, and I go at unwrapping in a bit of a frenzy.  Then, if you get quite a few presents, confusion sets in sometimes and I can’t remember who gave me what.  But that was yesterday and today is Boxing Day… 

Do you know why today is called Boxing Day, or that it is also St. Stephens day?  Neither did I until I looked it up.  The answers to the question differ a bit but they have little to do with fighting unless you take the saint into consideration. Perhaps we should all spare a thought for St. Stephen who became the first Christian martyr to die for his beliefs in about 36 A.D.  But that can’t be it because the bible tells us that more stones were thrown than punches.  Did you know that he is the patron saint of Serbia, bricklayers, stonemasons and horses?

I also read that Boxing Day might have been a day to re-box the presents you did not really want and subtly pass them on (although my West Indian heritage taught me that if you do that you will get a sty on your eye).   Apparently, it was also thought of as a day to get over all the pomp of Christmas day, giving the opportunity for you to get the house straight again if you were the one that invited everyone to your house, and Queen Victoria either started or re-invented the idea of encouraging the rich to give their servants the day off to have a celebration of their own.  It also became customary for the rich to give the poor a little present on the day.

More recently today has been thought of as a day to shop or watch sport on the television but last year the pandemic stopped us in our tracks when it came to getting out there for a Boxing Day bargain, and this year will be much the same if recent news is to be taken into consideration. 

But I suspect that yesterday will have been a subdued affair again, so I will be treating at least a little of my Boxing Day as a time to make sure that I remember who gave me what for Christmas so that the next time I meet the present givers, I avoid those conversations where you say thank you but cannot remember who gave you what.

BL, Lee

BL shares a few facts…

(►►►)   (►►►)