Thursday, December 29, 2022

BOXING DAY

I’LL HAVE ANOTHER
It doesn’t matter what is the origin of Boxing Day in England, today it is a holiday where shopping, drinking and sporting events fill the day.
Depending on whom you talk to, Boxing Day had either something to do with giving the servants the day off and sending them home with “Christmas Boxes” filled with food and money, or the day that boxes for alms set outside churches were finally opened and the contents distributed to the poor. Now, it’s a “bank holiday” where businesses close and pubs open and football matches fill the television screens.
The holiday is celebrated the day after Christmas, December 26th or the first weekday after Christmas in England and Wales and through much of the Commonwealth of British nations. Supposedly Boxing Day is considered a big shopping day where retailers fling open their doors with big reductions on prices, but here in Nantwich, our second home in Chesire, England, most of the little shops were closed and the streets were quieter than normal. We took the grandchildren to the market to buy some items, but they had no more chicken eggs, our number one priority! Although, we were able to get a comfy set of couches at Caffé Nero our favorite café in town as it wasn’t crowded at all. Hot chocolates and lattes are great pastimes with the grandchildren.
Later that day we went to the grandparent’s home for an expansive buffet served for Tea, what our hosts call an early dinner. We ate, drank and drank some more as we watched the Everton F.C. match on the television and chatted with family and friends until nearly midnight.
It was a relatively quiet day, perhaps because of the lingering effects of COVID when there was a severe lockdown throughout England, but in previous years we had gone on pub crawls and watched a well-attended match of the semi-professional local football club, the Nantwich Town F.C. at Weaver Stadium before Tea. Their nickname are the Dabbers although some in the crowd were calling them the Cabbages, because of their green kits.
Thanks for reading!
Love Janet and greg
© 2022 by Gregory Dunaj

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