Boxing Day is celebrated in most Commonwealth countries on December 26.
The origins of the Boxing Day holiday are unknown.
One theory is that during Advent, Anglican parishes displayed a box into which churchgoers put their monetary donations. On the day after Christmas, the boxes were broken open and their contents distributed among the poor, thus giving rise to the term Boxing Day.
The day after Christmas was also the traditional day on which the aristocracy distributed presents (boxes) to servants and employees. The servants returned home, opened their boxes and celebrated on what became known as Boxing Day.
Boxing Day has been a national holiday in England, Wales, Ireland and Canada since 1871.
The annual Boxing Day fox hunts, held all over the English countryside for hundreds of years, were imperiled in 2005 when Parliament banned the traditional method of using dogs to kill the prey.
The Bahamas celebrate Boxing Day with a street parade and festival called Junkanoo, in which traditional rhythmic dancers called gombeys fill the streets with their elaborate costumes and headdresses.
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