boxing day

Boxing Day is a public holiday in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, as well as many other members of the British Commonwealth of Nations, and Greece. It is based on the tradition of giving gifts to the less fortunate members of society.
It is usually celebrated on 26 December, the day after Christmas Day;[1][2], but its associated public holiday can be moved to the next weekday if 26 December is a Saturday or Sunday. The movement of Boxing Day varies between countries.
Christmas box
A Christmas box is, in English tradition, a clay box used in artisan shops. Apprentices, masters, visitors, customers, and others would put donations of money into the box, like a piggy bank, and then, after Christmas, the box would be shattered and all the contents shared among the workers of the shop. Thus, masters and customers could donate bonuses to the workers anonymously, and the employees could average their wages. The habit of breaking the Christmas box lent its name to Boxing Day. The term "Christmas box" now refers generally to a gift or pay bonus given to workers"Some boys are rich by birth beyond all wants,
Belov'd by uncles, and kind good old aunts;
When time comes round, a Christmas-box they bear,
And one day makes them rich for all the year." -- John Gay, Trivia (1716), Canto II, 182-6.
The Oxford English Dictionary attributes it to the Christmas box; the verb box meaning: "To give a Christmas-box (colloq.); hence the term boxing-day." The date coincides with the Feast of St. Stephen.
It was the day when people would give a present or Christmas box to those who had worked for them throughout the year.
In England many years ago, it was common practice for the servants to carry boxes to their employers when they arrived for their day's work on the day after Christmas. Their employers would then put coins in the boxes as special end-of-year gifts. This can be compared with the modern day concept of Christmas bonuses. The servants carried boxes for the coins, hence the name Boxing Day.