Boxing Day is the day after Christmas and is celebrated in various countries around the world. A few of the countries that celebrate Boxing Day include Australia, New Zealand, Canada, some countries in the Common Wealth Nation and the United Kingdom.

Boxing Day is a public holiday dedicated to the tradition of giving gifts to people who are not as fortunate as the others however, the public holiday can be shifted to the next weekend in case the day after Christmas is a weekend. Although the main purpose of Boxing Day is to help the less fortunate, the Boxing Day of today has become a major shopping day since heavy discounts are offered on Christmas and on Boxing Day. Malls and other stores in Australia and Canada hold special sales on Boxing Day and the sales usually last for a week.

Although Boxing Day is celebrated on the day after Christmas, if this day falls on a Saturday or Sunday then the public holiday is moved to the next day. In an event when Boxing Day falls on a Saturday the holiday for Christmas would be on the 26^th followed by Boxing Day on the 27^th of the month. This step is taken to ensure that Boxing Day is celebrated on the day after Christmas.

An interesting fact that not many people know about Boxing Day is that according to folk culture on Boxing Day the king of the birds the Wren was captured in a ¡°box and taken to each and every house in the village and he would be asked for a good year and successful harvest.

Another belief of many people is that Boxing Day got its name due to the fact that many churches would open the Church's donation ¡°box on the day after Christmas and the funds and charity items would be distributed amongst the less fortunate.

Hence we can conclude that Boxing Day is celebrated on the day after Christmas in many countries and is dedicated to helping the poor and unfortunate.

Tags & Keywords : boxing day, United Kingdom, the day after Christmas