Soap Opera Digest
Soap Opera Weekly

READER PANEL

Join the Soap Opera Digest Reader Panel. If you love this magazine, you'll love being on the Reader Panel!

PROFILE

Star of the Week

PASSIONS Interviews

Juliet Mills (Tabitha)
— NBC

Britain's Wacky Holidays

— By Robert Schork

After exporting two of America's biggest holidays — 4th of July and Thanksgiving — to family and friends back in her native England this year, PASSIONS' Juliet Mills (Tabitha) says not all holidays are meant to criss-cross the pond. For example. "Halloween is not a big deal over there at all. The kids don't trick-or-treat or anything like that. But on Nov. 5 we have a similar holiday, which is called Guy Fawkes. For some unknown reason we celebrate the man who tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament in the 16th century. That's very English, isn't it?" she says with a laugh.

While Christmas is certainly celebrated on both sides of the pond, Americans are often curious about "Boxing Day," which is listed on some calendars as a British holiday on Dec. 26. In present-day, the holiday is meant to offer thanks to people in service jobs (doormen, postal workers, et al), people who do volunteer work, and the needy, by giving them a gift — often money — in a wrapped box. According to Mills, the custom originates from way back, "when the rich families and nobility had their big Christmas Day feasts, and the poor serfs had none. The next day after Christmas, boxes of leftovers were made up for all of their servants — things that hadn't been eaten or cooked, like a half-dozen pheasants, or whatever." Why not call it Leftover Day? "That doesn't have quite as good of a ring to it, now does it?"

RELATED RESOURCES


 

   
Subscribe to Soap Opera Digest for just $21.95 - a savings of 75% OFF the cover price! With your subscription you'll receive THE INSIDER, our subscriber-only weekly email newsletter filled with the news and gossip you won't find anywhere else!

Soap Opera Digest is the insiders' guide to daytime. Every week we bring you behind-the-scenes secrets, the latest star gossip, the latest star fashions, complete show recaps and VCR alerts so that you get the most out of your soaps!




GIVE A GIFT
 
Email:
First Name:
Last Name:
Address Line 1:
Address Line 2:
City:
State: Zip:
Select a payment option:
Charge my credit card
Bill me later
Do you have a promotional coupon code?
Enter Code:
Please send me special offers and exclusive promotions from Soap Opera Digest's premiere partners.
 
 
You need to upgrade your Flash Player Place your alternate content here.

HOT OFF THE NET

POLLING BOOTH

SOAP OPERA OFFERS



Source Interlink Media
261 Madison Avenue • New York, NY • 10016