Rekindling a tradition, St. Stephen’s Day

“By coach to my shoemaker’s and paid all there, and gave something to the boys’ box against Christmas.” So noted the London diarist, Samuel Pepys, in his journal entry for Dec. 19, 1663, though he wasn’t always quite so breezy about the Boxing Day traditions of his time, before there was an actual day of that description.

In a December entry five years later, Pepys strikes a bit of a Scroogy note in observing, “Up, called up by drums and trumpets; these things and boxes having cost me much money this Christmas already, and will do more.” Pepys was alluding to the centuries- old tradition that gave rise to the Boxing Day label we apply to Dec. 26.

It began in the medieval practice of opening the church alms boxes, filled with collections for the needy, on the day after Christmas. By Victorian times, it embraced gift boxes for apprentices, employees and service providers on the 26th.

Why the 26th? It is the Day of St. Stephen, provider for the poor in the early Christian church. He’s long associated with the spirit of giving to those in need.

You may even have sung a song about St. Stephen’s Day.

When we belt out verses of Good King Wenceslas ( in fact, a medieval Duke of Bohemia) setting out with his page on the Feast of Stephen, we’re singing a Boxing Day tale. The king and his man are bringing food, wine and firewood to a distant peasant family as a wintry St. Stephen’s Day mission to help the needy. While we’ve kept the old names, St. Stephen’s Day and Boxing Day, we could do more to keep up the fine tradition of using this day to help those less fortunate.

For there is a timeless value in extending the giving spirit of Christmas beyond your own hearth and into the greater community. Certainly the need has not gone away. And there is much more uplift for the human spirit in bringing some joy to others than in spending time looking for online sales.

There are many ways you can rekindle the St. Stephen’s Day legacy by reaching out to the vulnerable — not only to those who lack adequate shelter, food and clothing, but to the isolated, as well, who lack companionship, a friendly or familiar face, the gift of shared time.

You can visit someone in hospital or a nursing home, spend time with a person who is alone, share a meal, a movie or conversation to break a lonely isolation. Take a shut- in friend for a drive. Pack up clothing or other items for families that could use them.

Make Boxing Day a time to think outside the box for ways to help those forgotten in some wintry night of human need. Sure, Boxing has passed for this year, but it’s never really too late for acts of kindness.