In an editorial Dec. 26, this newspaper reiterated its hope that south Louisiana follow the British example and celebrate that date as Boxing Day.
The editorial notes that Dec. 26 is also the Feast Day of St. Stephen, “which is why” it “is often focused on horse racing and fox hunting.”
Wow. This Stephen sounds like much more fun than the average saint. Who knew?
The Bible, however, offers no clue as to why Stephen should be venerated as a patron of equestrian pursuits. The first Christian martyr, he was stoned to death on a trumped-up charge of blasphemy.
Still, it is true that in countries of the British Commonwealth, Boxing Day is very big on sports. It offers relief from what can be the tedium of Christmas Day.
It may verge on the heretical to say so, but while Christmas morning is fine when little kids are around, and the family meal is an occasion to be savored, the big day can be a real test of patience.
Lassitude descends once appetites are sated, and TV offers movies so familiar that everyone knows what happens next. Boxing Day should be when everyone comes back to life. The trick to making it work is not to jump the gun on Christmas Day.
The NFL, however, elects not to take the day off, so Americans are denied the full benefit of delayed gratification on Boxing Day. As the newspaper's resident former Limey, I can tell you what a real Boxing Day is like.
Back in the day, when we were all still single, a few of us young fellows would meet up in London late on Christmas Day and catch a plane to Dublin. The next day would find us at Leopardstown races rubbing shoulders with Catholic priests in line for one of the bookies. Pints of stout and, maybe, shots of Irish whiskey would fortify us against the elements. Out in the country, fox hunts would be in full swing.
“Hunting foxes,” according to our editorial, “sounds fine,” although that is no longer the consensus in Great Britain, where hunting wild animals with dogs was made illegal in 2005. That meant fox hunting and the slightly more downmarket pursuit of hare coursing were banned.
Although fox hunting these days is illegal in England, Scotland and Wales, that has not made it unpopular, according to animal rights groups. Violent confrontations have often occurred when saboteurs have done their best to disrupt proceedings.
Hunts claim that these days they merely follow a scent laid across the country, but activists insist that this is a sham and that foxes continue to be hunted and killed. Our editorial was, however, somewhat out of date on the vulpine issue.
The day after Christmas is called Stephen's Day in Ireland, but it has been known since Victorian times as Boxing Day in Great Britain, presumably because that was when the gentry boxed up gifts for the lower orders.
Making Dec. 26 a holiday might therefore offend the American egalitarian spirit, but this newspaper's hope that Boxing Day “catches on” in this country may not be an idle one. Nobody is keen to go back to work the day after Christmas, and horseracing is an established feature of the day, with no reported intercession from St. Stephen.
Email James Gill at gill504nola@gmail.com.