The English novelist, Charles Dickens, references Boxing Day in his first novel, “The Pickwick Papers,” which was published as a monthly serial until 1837.
In 1833, the Oxford English Dictionary, an acknowledged guardian of the correct use of the English language, makes the first reference to Boxing Day in print.
Practiced throughout Ireland, Wren Day tradition required participants to go door to door looking for alms in exchange for a wren’s feather — with the tradition of “hunting the wren” actually going back to Celtic times.
Saint Stephen Day recalls the patron saint, based in Jerusalem, who helped the poor but was stoned to death, making him the first Christian martyr for the faith.
