Boxing Day, Kwanzaa & Other Year End Traditions

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Being that there are many good Americans here at this site, I don’t expect you to understand the significance of this oddly named holiday, which nonetheless appears on many of your calendars.
So while you’re trying on your new clothes or hooking up your electronics, why not see how much you know about the celebration?
Ready?

Traditionally, Boxing Day is a day where people from such places as Canada, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand have the day off to:
A) Box up cash, food or other goods for the less fortunate as a gesture of good will.
B) “Box up” resentments and bad feelings to symbolically let go of grudges and make peace.
C) Watch prizefighters box each other to raise money for local charities.
D) Box up and return unwanted gifts to the stores, while merchants run heavily promoted one-day after-Christmas sales that rival Black Friday in the U.S.

The correct answer?
That depends on what tradition you’re talking about — the old one or the new one. (It’s complicated.) So, what can we say about Boxing Day?
Well, it’s not to celebrate Muhammad Ali.
Nor is it for patching up bad relationships.

The answer, therefore, is A.

And D.

Boxing Day’s roots can be traced to Great Britain. The celebration originated from the long-ago tradition of presenting money, food or durable goods, often in boxes, to the less fortunate.
That’s about as much as anyone can definitively say about its origin because once you step beyond that point, it’s straight into the quagmire of debated claims and dueling folklorists.

And we’re not about to get into that.

Happy Boxing Day, Cels

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Luke wrote:Happy Boxing Day, Cels
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Celsius wrote:
A) Box up cash, food or other goods for the less fortunate as a gesture of good will.
B) “Box up” resentments and bad feelings to symbolically let go of grudges and make peace.

I'll go with A & B.

Happy Boxing Day!

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There are seven principles or Nguzo Saba.
1. UMOJA or Unity (Pronounced OO-MO-JA) -
This principle is represented by a black candle. It is reflected in the African sayings "I am We" or "I am because We are."
2. KUJICHAQULIA or Self Determination -
This principal is represented by a red candle.
3. UJIMA or Collective Work and Responsibility) -
This principle is represented by a green candle.
4. UJAMAA or Cooperative Economics -
This principle is represented by a red candle.
5. NIA or Purpose -
This principle is represented by a green candle.
6. KUUMBA or Creativity -
This principle is represented by a red candle.
7. IMANI or Faith -
This principle is represented by a green candle.

Happpy Kwanzaa, KTRB

Here are some Czech traditions. I don't follow all of them.

No lights should be lit in the house before the first star comes out. After it does, dinner is served.
The table should be set for an even number of guests. An odd number brings bad luck or death.
An extra plate can be used to even out the number of guests. An extra plate should also be prepared in case an unexpected guest or a person in need comes by the house at dinner time.
The legs of the table can be tied with a rope to protect the house from thieves and burglars in the coming year.
No one should sit with their back to the door.
Christmas dinner should consist of nine courses including soup, bread with honey, carp, potato salad, fruit (dried, fresh or canned) & dessert (apple strudel or vánočka - Christmas bread).
No alcohol should be served on Christmas Eve.
No one should ever get up from the Christmas table before dinner is finished. Doing so brings bad luck and death in the family.
Everyone should finish their dinner and leave nothing on the plate.
The first person to leave the table after dinner will be the first one to die in the coming year - that is why everyone should get up from the table at the same time.
Any leftovers from dinner (crumbs, fishbones, etc.) should be buried around outdoor trees to ensure they will bear lots of fruit.
All household animals should be fed after dinner so that no one goes hungry on Christmas Eve.

When I was little, we used empty walnut shells and each family member placed a little burning candle into a shell. Everyone's shells were then floated on a bowl of water. If the shell made it across the bowl, its owner will live a long and healthy life. A shell that sinks brings bad luck to its owner.

For New Years, we ate a bowl of lentils with a cooked egg on top. The lentils were for lots of money for the coming new year and the egg for a sunny future.

Soapbuddy wrote:Here are some Czech traditions. I don't follow all of them.
Christmas dinner should consist of nine courses including soup, bread with honey, carp, potato salad, fruit (dried, fresh or canned) & dessert (apple strudel or vánočka - Christmas bread).

Nine courses! That's some dinner.

Soapbuddy wrote:No one should ever get up from the Christmas table before dinner is finished. Doing so brings bad luck and death in the family.

Hopefully I'll have a long life. I'm always the last one to leave.

Soapbuddy wrote:For New Years, we ate a bowl of lentils with a cooked egg on top. The lentils were for lots of money for the coming new year and the egg for a sunny future.

Well you can never have enough money. I'm buying a can of lentil soup for tomorrow's dinner and adding a sunnyside egg to it.


In grew up in West Virginia. We always ate black eyed peas on New Year's eve because it was believed to be bring good luck for the coming year. My mother, a true Southern lady if ever there was one, was known to hold guests hostage until they'd ingested at a least a spoonful of black eyed peas and greens lest their luck for the upcoming year be damaged before the year even got under way.

Sounds like the black eyed peas served the same purpose. I don't think I've ever eaten any; or collard greens. I believe that's a southern food as well?

I've had had so many New Year’s traditions over the years. As a kid, it was always tons of late night movies and junk food and the whole family just being together. As an adult, my traditions have included everything from banging pots and pans to lighting fireworks. For me, sticking to traditions while they fit my life, going with the flow when they don’t and grabbing new ones makes sense. Traditions, after all, are about passing on customs and beliefs. So, maybe it’s not so important whether we are banging pots or lighting fireworks. Maybe it is really about setting aside the time to be together, to celebrate the New Year coming, honor the past year and forging forward to futures that lie ahead.

Levi wrote:I've had had so many New Year’s traditions over the years. As a kid, it was always tons of late night movies and junk food and the whole family just being together. As an adult, my traditions have included everything from banging pots and pans to lighting fireworks. For me, sticking to traditions while they fit my life, going with the flow when they don’t and grabbing new ones makes sense. Traditions, after all, are about passing on customs and beliefs. So, maybe it’s not so important whether we are banging pots or lighting fireworks. Maybe it is really about setting aside the time to be together, to celebrate the New Year coming, honor the past year and forging forward to futures that lie ahead.

I agree.
Banging pots or lighting fireworks sounds pretty cool too!

Put a dollar bill in your right shoe and after walking the first 24 hrs of the year put it in your wallet and don’t use it the last day of year 2010. This will attract more money the whole year.

Razorman wrote:Put a dollar bill in your right shoe and after walking the first 24 hrs of the year put it in your wallet and don’t use it the last day of year 2010. This will attract more money the whole year.

I like that one; thanks!

Don’t forget to eat something sweet, so the year can be sweet as well.

AtomicGleam wrote:Don’t forget to eat something sweet, so the year can be sweet as well.

Got that! I'm saving my chocolate.

Soapbuddy wrote:Got that! I'm saving my chocolate.

If you don't have chocolate, grapes will work.
Eat 12 grapes at midnight and while eating them make a wish for each month of the year 2010.

AtomicGleam wrote:

Soapbuddy wrote:Got that! I'm saving my chocolate.

If you don't have chocolate, grapes will work.
Eat 12 grapes at midnight and while eating them make a wish for each month of the year 2010.

I heard about the 12 grapes somewhere; also 12 bells.

Auld Lang Syne” has been called the most familiar song to which nobody knows the words. Written by Robert Burns and first published after his death in 1796, the song became an annual standard in 1929 when Guy Lombardo played it on New Year’s Eve, broadcasting from the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. The title literally means, “Old Long Time.” Roughly translated, here are the words:

Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot, and days of auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne.
We’ll take a cup of kindness yet, for days of auld lang syne.

We two have run around the hills
And pulled the daisies fine.
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot
Since the days of auld lang syne.

We two have paddled in the stream
From morn till the sun was down.
But seas between us two have roared
Since days of auld lang syne.

So here’s a hand my trusty friend.
Give us a hand of thine.
We’ll take a good-will drink again
For auld lang syne.

Auld Lang Syne is a real downer. Rather depressing, I would say.
After all those years there should be a more uplifting tune to bring in the New Year with.

This song is an alternative to the 1929 New Year's tune. "Same Old Lang Syne" is a song written and sung by Dan Fogelberg from his 1981 album The Innocent Age. It's a narrative ballad told in the first person and tells the bittersweet story of two long-ago lovers meeting on Christmas Eve. The melody phrase at the beginning of each verse is taken by Fogelberg from Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. The song is frequently played during the holiday season and is integrated with traditional Christmas songs, despite having little to do with the holiday other than a brief mention of Christmas Eve. The song begins mentioning Christmas Eve and ends with the acknowledgment of snow, commonly associated with the Christmas holiday in U.S. popular culture. Apart from the initial (and final) reference, there is no further association with the holiday or holiday season. However, since the song's release, both the reference in the title and the musical quote of Auld Lang Syne (traditionally sung on New Year's Eve) as the epilogue have encouraged the song's popularity during December.

That song is just as depressing as the original Lang Syne.

Here's something much more uplifting.

AtomicGleam wrote:Don’t forget to eat something sweet, so the year can be sweet as well.

Not a good idea if you're a diabetic.

It has been a tradition in our family that if you eat cooked lentils with crumbled bacon and a sunny side up egg on New Year's, the lentils are for lots of money and the egg for a sunny future.

Tis been a bad year for MA's l'il nephew. Will give the cup of lentils and the sunny side egg with bacon a try this Saturday. Hope it works.