According to my Daily Calendar, today is Boxing Day in Canada. Our Neighbors to the North have exported many things to us, some good, some not-so-good. Among the good are Canadian bacon (You can't have an Egg McMuffin without it), Dan Ackroyd (That "wild and crazy guy" and pitchman for the Bass-O-Matic), and hockey players with mullets (A never-ending source of amusement). The not-so-good include Canadian geese (Befouling our waters since 1812. That will teach us to invade them.), Celine Dion (Your heart will go on, Celine. OK, we get it), and Justin Bieber (Baby, baby, baby. Enough already).
What are we to make of Boxing Day? Is it simlar to the "Airing of Grievances" and "Feats of Strength" commemorated in the classic "Festivus" Seinfeld episode? Do Canadians settle grievances aired during Christmas dinner by donning gloves and entering a boxing ring? "You both know the rules established by the Saskatchewan Boxing Commission. No blows below the belt. Standing eight count. No grabbing the mullet. Remember we disqualified you for that last year, Grandma."
According to Wikipedia, Boxing Day is a day after Christmas when wealthy people in the UK would give a box containing gifts to their servants. "If you do a really good job cleaning up after our bacchanal on Christmas Day, Jeeves, there may a box filled with goodies for you tomorrow. Hopefully, it will be better than the re-gifted fruitcake that we got from Lady Maude and stuck you with last year."
Our Canadian friends brought socialized medicine and that hilarious custom of arbitrarily adding the letter "u" when spelling from the UK. I guess that Boxing Day is just another remembrance of the good old days when Canada was part of the Empire. Or maybe they like boxed fruitcake north of the border.
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