Boxing day is usually the day after Christmas and is celebrated in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand and Canada. http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Xmas/boxingday.html
This holiday has nothing to do with the sport of boxing, but rather with putting alms in a "Christmas box" for the poor. Another aspect of the history has to do with putting money in a box to protect ships during a voyage. Upon arriving safely at the port, the money was given to the poor. Another historical aspect of Boxing Day is the fox hunt. We saw a news segment on BBC about a planned fox hunt in Great Britian. This has lessened somewhat in popularity due to the concern of animal rights campaigners.
Being a Sunday, we attended Mass again at St. Malachy's Church. We found out from the priest, Father Michael McGinnity, that during the infamous Belfast Blitz of WWII on 15 April 1941, a bomb landed in front of the church, but miraculously did not cause any structural damage.
Being Boxing Day, this was a holiday and many restaurants and places of business were closed. But this is also a big shopping day in the U.K. with many ongoing sales and shoppers behaving...well, as ambitious shoppers are known to behave! We avoided the crowds by seeing a movie at the local movie house. We had all been looking forward to seeing Narnia Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Prior to the movie, our mouths were watering as we anticipated our buttery popcorn. But to our surprise, they do not offer butter...only salt or a sweetener.
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