The Second Day of Christmas and Boxing Day

Happy Boxing Day, Canadians!

Since my mother-in-law lives in Canada, I’m sure she’s celebrating Boxing Day.  It used to be, back in the day, when everybody gave a goody box to people like the mailman.  Now it’s the day everybody goes shopping, rather like Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) in the United States.  One thing I don’t understand is what, exactly are people buying?  On Black Friday people are buying Christmas gifts.  On Boxing Day are they buying next year’s Christmas gifts?

Today is also the Second Day of Christmas.  Or it is the First Day of Christmas according to the Wikipedia article I linked to.  It says that the day starts the night before, so that the first night of Christmas is the evening of the 25th until the evening of the 26th.  That would make the first day of Christmas the 26th.  Personally I think Christmas Day should count as the First Day of Christmas.  Apparently there are some traditions that agree with me.  It all depends on whether you consider January 5 or January 6 as the Twelfth Day of Christmas.

And we all know what “my true love gave to me” on the First Day of Christmas: a partridge in a pear tree.

I’ve never been sure what a partridge is but this site assures me that it is a small game bird, like a small pheasant.  There’s two kinds in the UK–a gray one and a red-legged one.  I suppose that it is a common bird in Europe; since that’s the continent the song came from I expect all the items in the song are common there, or were common there in the case of the lords a-leaping and so on.

I hope all of you had a very merry Christmas yesterday, and those of you in Canada or the UK (or any country that celebrates it), have a wonderful Boxing Day!