A Tudor Christmas - The Feast Of Saint Stephen (Boxing Day)

 26th December - Offering

Modern day Boxing day was previously known as the Feast of St Stephen. It was traditional for people to go from house to house visiting neighbours, family and friends. It was a day of charity when alms would be given and the poor would recieve leftovers. The poor would recieve food known as "broken meat" from the rich that was left over from their feasts the day before. This became known as "dole" and is were we get the term from that is used to this day. Tennents were also allowed to eat with their landlords, know as the St Stephen's Day Feast. Each party would give and recive a gift, the poor though were told what they had to give, which was mostly commonly a hen. 

Servants would recieve gift or boxes from the affluent, these were given to the Church and then opened on the 26th. Most caroles were written to celebrate St Stephen's Day, as time has gone on the lyrics have been changed by the Victorians. 

In the Isle of Man and Wales this day was known as Wren Day up until the 1900's. Wren's were hunted as a Pagan sacrifice or the belief that the wren's had betrayed St Stephen by singing about his wereabouts to his persecutors. Wren boys would try to catch the birds or make a dummy one, they would then parade around the town with the bird either in a cage or nailed to a post. A penny was then given to the boys who would give them a feather in return as it was said to give them good luck.