..on the feast of Stephen.

So - Boxing Day. What's that all about then? First you may be surprised to learn that it is a purely British - and by extension Commonwealth - thing. To the rest of the world, including the USA, it is simply December 26th, or possibly St Stephen's Day. Its origins certainly go back to the Middle Ages, but there seems to be no general agreement about why it's called Boxing Day. The most likely explanation is that this was the day when the churches opened their alms boxes and distributed the contents to the poor of the parish. A more modern suggestion would be that it's the day when you take your unwanted presents (still in their boxes of course) back to the shops to exchange them!