OC12/26/22
Boxing Day
Boxing Day
No matter how many arctic air masses they send our way, and no matter how unintelligible their language, we do love Canadians around here. But is also fair to talk about them now, too, since most of them are frozen solid during the half a year they spend at uninhabitable temperatures.
The Canadians who somehow manage to stay thawed in winter honor a great tradition on the day after what we in the rest of the world call “Christmas” of getting into bouts of, well, bouts. Maybe it’s the fisticuffs that keep them motivated not to freeze over. Maybe it’s the drinking to excess. Perhaps it’s because they can’t figure out how to pronounce words like “humour” or “vapour” or “sceptical.” For whatever reason, the come through the other side of Christmas feeling punchy. As they make clear, since they celebrate the day after Christmas as “Boxing Day.”
That’s right: whilst we in America are busy looking up retailers’ policies on merchandise returns, our northern neighbors are celebrating the day by engaging in pugilism. It’s not that we can’t empathize. We’ve all had the urge after ‘twas the season. And the long, frustrating shopping lines drove us to distraction, too. But the calming effects of Christmas dinner’s tryptophan along with the pent-up physical exhaustion from the previous weeks of hectic preparations left us less than eager to come out of our corners swinging.
At any rate, as we in America celebrate (well: there isn’t anything to celebrate) the non-holiday we affectionately call “the day after Christmas” or “back to normal,” our northern friends will presumably be slugging it out in their own traditional tough-man, -woman, and -child activities. We really should admit, though: It’s better to get it all out of your system at once while honouring a national tradition. For those of us in the sunnier, more southern regions—if we want to engage in forced boxing matches—we have to get into electoral politics or at very least try to get booked on a cable TV “news” channel.
I would suppose the day after Boxing Day in Canadia is informally the day of black eyes, dentists, and rhinoplastic surgeons. It’s comforting to know that there will at least be plenty of ice around to apply to any swelling.
Happy Second Day of Christmas! Today’s special animal friends are two turtle doves, Streptopelia turtur:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu08nwgGNFc
The turtle dove has a wide range across Europe and into Asia, from Britain all the way to China. Their breeding season is in May and June. Females build a nest of twigs or use another species’s vacant nest. They lay two eggs. Turtle doves migrate to sub-Saharan Africa in the non-breeding season.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eerXWh6j6_4
Turtle doves eat the seeds of weeds and grasses, as well as some fruit and insects or worms. They prefer wild plants to agricultural grains. They are rated Vulnerable by IUCN as the expansion of agricultural land reduces the non-cultivated seed plants and nesting areas. They are also hunted, especially in their non-breeding range in Africa.
Today’s additional animal friend is a partridge that, unlike most partridges, could reasonably be expected to perch in a hypothetical pear tree: the red-legged partridge, Alectoris rufa:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBTtN0Wf86E
Native to Iberia, France, and a bit of Italy, the red-legged partridge has naturalized in some areas of England. They eat seeds, leaves, roots, and legumes as well as insects. This species prefers an open, flat habitat and nests on the ground. The red-legged partridge is rated Near Threatened by IUCN.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA92FFHK15M
According to an article at Vox.com, “The Twelve Days of Christmas” was first published in English in 1780. Earlier versions in French are theorized. Music historians agree the song was a memory game played during the Christmas-season festivities which began, rather than ended, on December 25. If a player could not remember the correct sequence – a feat which grew more difficult as the list grew longer and beverages were served – he or she would have to give a “forfeit,” usually a kiss, to another player.
Today is the memorial of St. Stephen, the "Feast of Stephen" on which Good King Wenceslas (St. Vaclav of Bohemia) looked out into the snow.
Here are the Chieftains performing "The St. Stephen's Day Murders":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8fPvODASoI