Christmastide: Day 2 (Boxing Day/St Stephen)

"On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, two turtle doves ..."

After a hefty price increase in 2023, the turtledoves are taking a break from sticker-shock this year. Their $750.00 cost reflects their rarity.

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Every year, I love to show a video of the á capella group Straight No Chaser singing their own unique version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas." This year (just when you thought I couldn't come up with anything else) they gave us a refresh.

Today still feels a little like Christmas, only the stores are open, bustling continued consumer spending in spite of everything. I know, some people may think that's a concession to the over-commercialization of the holiday, but as we mentioned before, it's better than pretending it's anything other than Christmas.

Today is “Boxing Day” in Canada, the UK, and other nations of the present and former British Empire. Traditionally, Christmas Day was when the master of the house would give presents to his family. On the following day, he would arrange for leftovers from his great feast to be given to his domestic staff, in boxes that they could take home. Eventually, it became customary to box other gifts as well.

Whatever works.

Meanwhile, the Irish celebrate this as a national holiday, too, only as Saint Stephen's Day, honoring one of the seven deacons appointed in the Book of Acts, to assist the apostles in their ministry. He was stoned to death by the Jews -- no, not all of the Jews, just some of them, and all of those guys were Jews, alright already??? -- and so is known in the Churches of the East as the "Protomartyr," as he was the first recorded to die for the Faith. And let's not forget that "Good King Welceslas" of Bohemia went out on the feast of Stephen, when the snow lay on ground, yada yada yada ...

It is also when Irish children would go from house to house, begging pennies to bury the wren, a tiny little bird whose size and scale for burial is exaggerated for the occasion, as demonstrated in the above video of "The Cutty Wren" by Nowell Sing We Clear.

And so it goes.

See all twelve days in progress at the "xmas12days2024-2025" label.