Britain’s Wacky Holidays
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?”
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