Boxing the days

Yesterday was Boxing Day here in New Zealand, and that meant people flocking to the shops to take advantage of the Boxing Day Sales. I was not among them. But I did buy some things. I also learned a few things, too.

Just like last year, I bought another pair of jeans because since last year two pairs of jeans now have big holes in one or both knees, and I turned a third pair into cutoffs. I also bought a black and brown belt, one of which is a replacement, and a couple shirts. It’s rare that I’ll even look at new clothes, much less buy anything, but most of my summer shirts are now suitable only for wearing around the house, not out and about. I’m trying to slowly add to what I have available to me.

I decided that today I was going to head out to one of the home centres to buy supplies for some of my projects around the house, and then maybe head up to the supermarket. I had no idea what the traffic would be like, particularly up by the supermarket I was headed to because it’s directly across from the main car entrance to The Base shopping centre. Boxing Day Sales are still on, after all.

On the other hand, many people head out of town for some (or all) of the holidays over Christmas/New Year, so I knew it was also possible the roads would be empty. It turned out to be the latter. In fact, the main (busy) road I was on had only a bit more traffic than at night. I was impressed and pleased.

The traffic was a little thicker up by the supermarket, as I expected, but there was ample parking and was able to acquire all necessary purchases (and a few unnecessary ones…). The traffic was thicker heading toward the road I needed to turn onto, but that was totally clear after that point. It ended up being a good trip home.

The project supplies were mainly for things I’ve already talked about, plus a little for other ones I haven’t mentioned, but will as I get to them. Actually, I still hope to video at least some of the prokjects I work on, but if that doesn’t work, I’ll at least have photos to share.

Yesterday I worked on an expressly political blog post using the Boxing Day public holiday as a starting point, but I got bored with it. However, it may resurface around a different public holiday at some point. Maybe.

In that post-that-wasn’t, I talked about how the origins of Boxing Day are uncertain, however, one possibility is that it may date back to the late middle ages and the use of the “alms box” to collect cash donations for the poor. Those boxes were apparently opening on The Feast of Stephen—December 26, a holiday for a person some claim was “the first Christian martyr”.

I’d heard that possibility before, but this time it was the reference to “the Feast of Stephen”, because earlier I’d heard it referred to by it’s more common name, “St. Stephen’s Day”. The “feast” name is, of course, a line from the Christmas carol, Good King Wenceslas, and is based on a story about Saint Wenceslaus I, who was Duke of Bohemia ca907–935CE, who some regarded as a martyr after his death.

The lyrics for the carol was written in 1853 by English hymn writer John Mason Neale to fit the melody of a13th Century Spring/Easter Carol (maybe even back then creators were wanted to use public domain works to avoid copyright infringement?). Neale’s motivation was that he wanted to revive some of the pomp of the Catholic church in the Anglican church, including Feast Days, and that’s why his carol promoted “The Feast of Stephen”. Interestingly, some folks were angry that he’d appropriated a carol for Spring/Easter and changed it to Christmas. Apparently even back then critics didn’t approve of changing public domain works for new uses.

The Christmas Carol isn’t directly related to Boxing Day, apart from the fact that they’re both connected to the Feast of Stephen. However, because I was looking into Boxing Day, I saw the Feast of Stephen and became curious about what it had to do with the carol that mentioned it, which, in turn, led to the story of its creation and who the heck “Good King Wenceslas” was.

So, this year I again bought some “Boxing Day Sale” things online for the second year in a row, and I also learned a few things, too. I consider that a win.