The confusing Origins of Boxing Day
Some suggest that the origins of Boxing Day can be found during the Victorian Era, but it appears to have begun much earlier.
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Christmas Pantomime Tradition
In Jane Austen’s day, theaters prepared Christmas pantomimes (pantos) that would begin on Boxing Day and run as long as the audiences demanded them. Although pantomimes had begun as a crowd-pleasing mix of humor, mime, special effects spectacles, song and dance, based on the Italian commedia dell’arte, by the late Georgian era, the panto had become a well-established part of Christmas tradition.
Continue reading →Regency era Holiday Gift Giving
Gift giving in Jane Austen’s Day. What might she have given or received for Christmas? Though gift giving was not the primary focus of the Christmastide season, gifts were commonly exchanged. St. Nicholas Day, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and Twelfth Night were the most likely days for gift exchange. Old traditions called for gifts to be exchanged on New Year’s Day. Many gifts exchanged were gifts of obligation between unequal parties. Landowners and the well-off … Continue reading →
The Origins of Boxing Day
Some suggest that the origins of Boxing Day can be found during the Victorian Era, but it appears to have begun much earlier.. “Good King Wenceslas Looked Out On The Feast Of Stephen” The traditional Christmas carol “Good King Wenceslas” points us to a 10th century start to the Boxing Day tradition. Wenceslas, a 10th century Bohemian Duke, surveyed his land on St. Stephen’s Day (Dec. 26) and saw a peasant gathering wood in the … Continue reading →
Christmas Pantomimes
Each year, Regency era British theaters prepared Christmas pantomimes (pantos) that would begin on Boxing Day and run as long as the audiences demanded them. These were not silent productions, but rather very verbal performances that included the audience as an extra character in plays bearing many similarities to modern burlesque. The Pantomime Tradition The tradition of pantomimes and the pantomime characters in England traces back to medieval theater. Broadbent (1901) notes: A sketch of … Continue reading →