I was asked to write about Midwinter Customs for this month's magazine but when I came to put pen to paper (or rather fingers to keyboard), I realised that the subject matter was far too much for one short article. I decided therefore to focus on a part of the traditional Christmas that is somehow separate, namely the 26th December, 'St Stephens', or 'Boxing' Day as it has a fascinating history. It is also more likely to be the day when you, the reader, might be sitting down with your feet up recovering from the hectic run up to the Yuletide season and enjoying the bank holiday. In this article I will look at the St Stephen, his association with horses (and wrens) and how his feast day evolved into a time of giving 'boxes'.

All we know of St Stephen is found in the Acts of the Apostles. He was one of the first of the seven deacons to be chosen by the apostles to spread the word of Jesus. While preaching in the streets, angry Jews who believed him to be speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God, dragged him outside the city and stoned him to death.. In the crowd, on the side of the mob, was a man called Saul who would later be known as Saint Paul. With the formal establishment of the Church, Stephen became the first Christian Martyr, and his feast day became established as 26th December. In time he became the patron saint of casket makers, coffin makers, deacons, headaches, masons, stone masons and horses!

Saint Stephen was venerated as patron of horses from early times. A poem of the tenth century pictures him as the owner of a horse and dramatically relates how the animal was cured by Christ. As there is no historical basis for the tale of the horse, various explanations have been attempted. Some are founded on ancient Germanic ritual celebrations of pagan horse sacrifices at Yuletide. Others mention an obscure Swedish saint called Staffan who was killed by pagans in Helsingland and whose shrine at Norrtalje became a place of pilgrimage to which sick horses were brought. The 'Staffan Riders' parade through the towns of Sweden on 26th December, singing ancient carols in honour of the 'Saint of Horses'.

In Medieval times the farmers in a number of European countries would also decorate their horses on Stephen's Day, and then bring them to the Church to be blessed by the priest. After the blessing, they would then ride them three times around the church, a custom still observed in many rural areas, and later in the day the whole family would go for a ride in a wagon or sleigh (Saint Stephen's ride).

The horses' food, mostly hay and oats, was also blessed on Stephen's Day. In sections of Poland research states that they even toss oats at the priest after Mass. Popular legends say this custom is an imitation of stoning, performed in honor of the St Stephen's martyrdom others say, predictably, that it is the remnant of some ancient pagan fertility rite.

When in the late seventeenth century, the diarist John Aubrey, recorded that 'On St Stephen's Day, the farrier came constantly and blouded all our carthorses', he was referring to the practice of galloping the horses, then ceremonially feeding, decorating and bleeding them to give them good health in the coming year. Ignoring the fact that bloodletting was a common medical practice for humans even in the eighteenth century, some theorise that this too links back to pagan times and the sacrifice of horses!

In south and eastern Ireland, the Isle of Man and West Wales, Saint Stephen's Day was the occasion for boys (the Wren Boys) to go from house to house, one of them carrying a dead wren on a branch decorated with all kinds of gay, streaming ribbons. Stopping in front of each door they sing a song which included the words

"The wren, the wren, the king of all birds, On St Stephen's Day was caught in a furze..."

They would then be given little gifts by the householders. The wren is believed to have been "stoned" to death in memory of Saint Stephen's martyrdom, though for those who like to look for tenuous links with paganism this is seen by some to represent a relic of some ancient Druidic sacrifice of wrens at the time of the winter solstice. A remnant of Wren Hunting has survived in Dingle, Co Kerry, Ireland and is to be found at Middleton in Suffolk.

The calling at households for gifts was, and still is core part of the Christmas/ Yule-tide tradition with pre-Christmas carol singing one of the remnants. In times past young labourers would dress up and perform short plays or dances in return for money, a drink or some food. These people were variously known as 'guisers', 'molly dancers' or 'mummers'. Many of these traditions have survived or been revived and on Boxing Day 2004 there will be over a hundred events taking place all around the country.

St Stephen's Day was also the day when the alms boxes from the monasteries and churches were opened and the money given to the priest or used to help the poor and needy. The carol, Good King Wenceslas, is set on St Stephen's Day and outlines how the Catholic king of Bohemia in the 10th century made charitable attempts to give food to the poor.

During the early seventeenth century it became the custom for apprentices to ask their master's customers for money at Christmas time. They collected this money in earthenware containers, which resembled modern day 'piggy banks' and which could only be opened by being smashed. On the day following Christmas Day the apprentices would eagerly have a 'smashing time', It is interesting to note the fact that earthenware 'boxes' were used by the Romans in Ancient times for collecting money to help pay for the pagan festivities at the winter Saturnalia celebrations.

As time passed, more than just apprentices started to be given rewards on St. Stephens Day. It could be a costly business with some wealthy families giving as much as £30 in order to keep up appearances and in favour with the people who served them. In 1710 Jonathan Swift declared 'I shall be undone here with Christmas boxes. The rogues of the coffee house have raised their tax, every one giving a crown, and I gave mine for shame, besides a great many half-crowns to great men's porters etc.'

But the distribution of Christmas 'boxes', to people who had provided services throughout the year became even more widespread with gifts to be given to 'letter-carriers, policemen, lamp-lighters, scavengers, butchers' and bakers' boys, tradesmen's carmen, etc, and from tradesmen by the servants of households that deal with them'. This tradition has now mostly stopped and any Christmas tips, given to people such as postal workers and newspaper delivery children, are not normally given or collected on Boxing Day.

The first recorded use of the term Boxing Day for the 26th December was in 1833. In 1853 attitudes were the same as in the 1700s. Charles Manby Smith recorded in his Curiosities of London Life: 'Boxing Day...when nobody, it would almost seem, is too proud to beg, and when everybody who does not beg is expected to play the almoner. "Tie up the knocker-say you're sick, you are dead," is the best advice perhaps that could be given in such cases to any man who has a street-door and a knocker upon it'.

It also became traditional for servants to be given the day off to celebrate Christmas with their families on Boxing Day. In 1871 the Bank Holidays Act declared St Stephen's Day, now officially secularized as Boxing Day a day of leisure for all. It soon became a day for horse racing, football matches, Pantomimes, and of course, the first post-Christmas sales. Quite a change from the day set aside for the remembrance of a pious follower of Jesus, and perhaps a return to the old pagan festivities of Saturnalia? But that's another story, which I hope to cover next year!!!