Saturday, December 28, 2019
THOSE WE LOST IN 2019, PART 1
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Date of death:
December 8, 2019
Age at death:
21
Cause of death:
Died after
reportedly having a seizure at Chicago’s Midway Airport. Autopsy yet to be performed, cause of death
not yet known
Comments:
American rapper,
singer, and songwriter. Born in Chicago, Illinois, he was known for his singles
"All Girls Are the Same" and "Lucid Dreams".
Some more:
Members of the defunct pop-punk band Yellowcard suedJuice
Wrld prior to his for $15 million, claiming that Juice WRLD’s 2018 breakthrough
hit “Lucid Dreams” copied “melodic elements” from their own 2006 album track
“Holly Wood Dies.” The band is asking for $15 million in damages, as well as a
“running royalty and/or ownership share” in all future use of the song. They
also wanted money from all future Juice WRLD tours and public appearances,
which will not now be happening.mn Yellowcard have announced that they are
still pursuing their lawsuit.
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Date of death:
December 8, 2019
Age at death:
85
Cause of death:
Died at his home
in Connecticut after years of battling dystonia, a movement disorder.
Comments:
American
puppeteer, cartoonist, author and speaker most famous for playing Big Bird and
Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street from its inception in 1969 until 2018.
Some more:
According to
Sesame Workshop. Big Bird's influence in the educational world was so vast that
Spinney (plus Big Bird) was considered for a spaceflight on the space shuttle
Challenger. The Big Bird puppet,
however, is 8 feet 2 inches (248 centimeters) tall — which is a very tight fit
aboard a spaceship. Current NASA astronaut requirements don't allow astronauts
to exceed 75 inches, or 6 feet 3 inches (190 cm), in height.
Spinney spoke
about the spaceflight offer in "I Am Big Bird," a 2015 documentary
about the character and Spinney's life. "I once got a letter from NASA,
asking if I would be willing to join a mission to orbit the Earth as Big Bird,
to encourage kids to get interested in space," Spinney said in an essay in
The Guardian that same year. "There wasn't enough room for the puppet in
the end, and I was replaced by a teacher."
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Date of death:
December 2, 2019
Age at death:
62
Cause of death:
Heart attack.
Comments:
Australian
vocalist, keyboardist, harmonicist and songwriter with Australian pop/new wave
band Mental As Anything. Smith wrote many of their hit songs including
"Live it Up" which peaked at No. 2 on the Australian singles chart.
Smith had a solo music career, had worked with other bands and was also an
artist and television personality.
Some more:
Born Andrew
McArthur Smith in Sydney, Australia, he later attended North Sydney Boys High.
Showing an interest in art he moved on to the East Sydney Technical College
(now known as the National Art School) in Darlinghurst in the mid-1970s while
also holding down a part-time job as a bottle shop attendant. At college he met
fellow students, Martin Murphy, Chris O'Doherty, David Twohill and Steve
Coburn, whose band, Mental As Anything, had been playing art school parties and
dances since May 1976. While playing
harmonica in another band at the time, Smith started appearing on stage with
Mental As Anything from around December. He was eventually cajoled by fellow
Mental As Anything members to learn keyboards on an old wedding reception organ
to fill in their sound and he quit his other band.
The promoter at
the Sydney rock group's first performance took one look at their on-stage
antics and labelled them Mental As Anything. The trio, lead guitarist Reg
Mombassa, guitarist Martin Plaza and drummer Wayne Delisle, liked the name, and
adopted it. The trio became a quintet
with the addition of keyboard player Greedy Smith (who earned his nickname by
eating 15 pieces of chicken on stage one night) and Reg's brother, bass man
Peter O'Doherty.
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Date of death:
November 20,
2019
Age at death:
80
Cause of death:
James was diagnosed
with leukaemia and emphysema in 2010.
Comments:
Australian
critic, broadcaster and writer who lived and worked in the United Kingdom from
1961 until his death in 2019. He began his career specialising in literary
criticism before becoming television critic for The Observer in 1972, where he
made his name for his wry, deadpan humour. During this period, he earned an
independent reputation as a poet and satirist. He achieved mainstream success
in the UK first as a writer for television, and eventually as the lead in his
own programs, including ...on Television.
Some more:
Rather than fade
away, his illness seemed to inspire within him an urgency to capture every idea
and thought. Since 2010, he published
eight books, including a translation of Dante's Divine Comedy and Sentenced to
Life, a collection of poems described by the New York Times as "harrowing"
and "gravid with meaning". Until
mid 2017, he was penning a weekly column for The Guardian called Reports of My
Death in which he wrote about "life, death and everything in between"
in an amusing deadpan style. Writing almost to the end, an autobiographical
anthology called The Fire of Joy was finished a month ago and will be published
in 2020, according to his website.
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ELIJAH CUMMINGS
Date of death:
October 17, 2019
Age at death:
68
Cause of death:
According to his
spokesman, Cummings died from "complications concerning longstanding
health challenges".
Comments:
American
politician and civil rights advocate who served in the United States House of
Representatives for Maryland's 7th congressional district from 1996 until his
death in 2019. He was a member of the
Democratic Party from 1996 and served in the Maryland House from 1983 through 1996.
That year, he was elected to the U.S. House. Most recently he served as the
Chair of the House Oversight Committee, helping to oversee the impeachment
enquiry into President Trump.
Some more:
In 1962, when he
was 11 years old, Cummings and some friends worked to integrate a segregated
swimming pool in South Baltimore.
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GINGER BAKER
Date of death:
October 6, 2019
Age at death:
80
Cause of death:
Not disclosed,
although in his final years he suffered from osteoarthritis, emphysema, a
degenerative spine condition and heart problems.
Comments:
English drummer
and a co-founder of the rock band Cream. His work in the 1960s and 1970s earned
him the reputation of "rock's first superstar drummer," for a style
that melded jazz and African rhythms and pioneered both jazz fusion and world
music.
Baker began
playing drums at age 15, and later took lessons from English jazz drummer Phil
Seamen. In the 1960s he joined Blues Incorporated, where he met bassist Jack
Bruce. The two clashed often, but would be rhythm section partners again in the
Graham Bond Organisation and Cream, the latter of which Baker co-founded with
Eric Clapton in 1966. Cream achieved worldwide success but lasted only until
1968, in part due to Baker's and Bruce's volatile relationship. After briefly
working with Clapton in Blind Faith and leading Ginger Baker's Air Force, Baker
spent several years in the 1970s living and recording in Africa, often with
Fela Kuti, in pursuit of his long-time interest in African music.
Some more:
Baker was
infamous for his violent temper and for confrontations with musicians and fans.
Rolling Stone reporter David Fricke wrote in 2012 that even in old age,
"you get close to Baker at your peril." His relationship with Jack
Bruce was so volatile that during a Graham Bond Organization concert he once
attacked him with a knife.
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Date of death:
October 4, 2019
Age at death:
84
Cause of death:
Carroll died at
her home in Los Angeles after a long bout with cancer.
Comments:
American
actress, singer, model, and activist. She rose to prominence in some of the
earliest major studio films to feature black casts, including Carmen Jones
(1954) and Porgy and Bess (1959). In 1962, Carroll won a Tony Award for best
actress, a first for an African American woman, for her role in the Broadway
musical No Strings. Her 1968 debut in
Julia, the first series on American television to star a Black woman in a
non-stereotypical role, was a milestone both in her career and the medium. In
the 1980s, she played the role of Dominique Deveraux, a mixed-race diva, in the
prime time soap opera Dynasty.
Some more:
Though she
sometimes stated publicly that her middle name was originally spelled
“Diahann,” she confirmed through her publicist in 2017 that she had adopted
that spelling as a teenager, when she began entering TV talent competitions.
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Date of death:
September 13,
2019
Age at death:
81
Cause of death:
Unknown
oz
Comments:
Australian actor
who played roles in the Australian television series Matlock Police and The
Sullivans. He won the Silver Logie five times, including three years
consecutively from 1978, the most awarded actor in Australia, alongside Martin
Sacks.
He was born to a
farming family in Wistow, South Australia in 1938. As a young man Cronin moved
to Melbourne where he worked in a variety of jobs. After actively seeking an
acting career, he performed in various Crawford Productions including Division
4 and Homicide. Cronin appeared as motorcycle policeman Gary Hogan in the
Crawford Productions drama Matlock Police (1971–1976), followed by its spin-off
Solo One (1976). He played the central character of Dave Sullivan in the
popular soap opera The Sullivans from 1976 to 1983.
Some more:
In 1986 Cronin
led a consortium with Christopher Skase which was awarded the inaugural licence
for the Brisbane Bears (now the Brisbane Lions) in the then-Victorian Football
League. He was president of the club from 1987-1989.
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Date of death:
80
Age at death:
August 30, 2019,
aged 80
Cause of death:
Harper died of
lung cancer.
Comments:
American
actress. She began her career as a dancer on Broadway, making her debut in the
musical Take Me Along in 1959. Harper is best remembered for her role as Rhoda
Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–1977) and its spin-off Rhoda
(1974–1978). For her work on Mary Tyler Moore, she thrice received the Primetime
Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, and later
received the award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her work
on Rhoda.
Some more:
Apart from
regularly popping in as Rhoda on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, she starred in
another sitcom called Valerie, playing the mother of three teenage boys whose
husband, an airline pilot, is away most of the time. However, following a
salary dispute, she was fired after the second series in 1987. Harper sued NBC
and Lorimar for breach of contract and unfair dismissal, and was awarded $1.4m
plus 12.5 % of the show’s profits. The series continued, renamed Valerie’s
Family and then The Hogan Family, without her, with the explanation that her
character had died, only to be replaced by Sandy Duncan, who had played her
sister-in-law.
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PETER FONDA
Date of death
79
Age at death:
August 16, 2019
Cause of death:
Fonda died from
respiratory failure caused by lung cancer at his home in Los Angeles
Comments:
American actor,
director, and screenwriter, the son of Henry Fonda, younger brother of Jane
Fonda, and father of Bridget Fonda. He was a part of the counterculture of the
1960s.
Fonda was
nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Easy Rider (1969),
and the Academy Award for Best Actor for Ulee's Gold (1997). For the latter, he
won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama. Fonda also
won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or
Television Film for The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999).
Some more:
In June 2018, Fonda went on Twitter to
criticize President Donald Trump's administration's method of enforcement of
U.S. immigration policy by Jeff Sessions, specifically regarding the separation
of children from their parents at the Mexican border, writing that "We
should rip Barron Trump from the arms of First Lady Melania Trump and put him
in a cage with pedophiles." He also suggested that Americans should seek
out names of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in order to
protest outside of their homes and the schools of their children. The Secret
Service opened an investigation based on a report from the Trump family. Former
Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, whose daughter, White House Press Secretary
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, was also the object of Fonda's tweets, believes that
Fonda's statement about Barron Trump is a violation of federal criminal law.Fonda
had also suggested "Maybe we should take her (Sanders) children
away..."
In another later
deleted tweet, Fonda targeted United States Department of Homeland Security
Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen by calling her a "vulgar" name and calling
for Nielsen to be "put in a cage and poked at by passersby ..."
Fonda stated
that he deleted his tweet regarding Barron Trump, saying that he "immediately
regretted it and sincerely apologize to the family for what I said and any hurt
my words have caused." Backlash to Fonda's tweets resulted in a call for a
boycott of his newest film at the time, Boundaries, and other Sony projects.
Sony Pictures released Boundaries as planned on June 22, 2018, but released a
statement stating that Fonda's comments "are abhorrent, reckless and
dangerous, and we condemn them completely."
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HAL
PRINCE
Date of death:
July 31, 2019
Age at death:
91
Cause of death:
Prince died on July 31, 2019, in Reykjavík, Iceland,
at the age of 91 following a brief illness.
Comments:
American theatrical producer and director associated
with many of the best-known Broadway musical productions of the 20th century. Over the span of his career, he garnered 21
Tony Awards, more than any other individual, including eight for directing,
eight for producing the year's Best Musical, two as Best Producer of a Musical,
and three special awards.
Some more:
Much of his productivity, Prince admitted later in his
career, arose from fits of depression he suffered between projects, a condition
that began in childhood with a nervous breakdown. He recalled being immobilised
and unable to sleep for months. “Out of that, you create the person you want to
be,” he said in 1988.
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Margaret
Fulton
Date of death:
July 24, 2019
Age at death:
94
Cause of death:
No cause given
OZ
Comments:
Scottish-born Australian food and cooking writer,
journalist, author and commentator. She was the first of this genre of writers
in Australia. Fulton's early recipes
encouraged Australians to alter their traditional staple of "meat and
three vegetables" and to be creative with food. She encouraged
international cuisine from places such as Spain, Italy, India and China. As the
cookery editor of the Woman's Day magazine, she "brought these into
Australian homes through her articles."
Although she did some television work, Fulton mainly concentrated on
writing, because she felt it was her higher talent.
Some more:
Emcee Mike Carlton at a tribute to Margaret Fulton
upon her death:
Emcee Mike Carlton told those gathered at the Art
Gallery of New South Wales that Ms Fulton had "blazed a trail",
introducing Australian families to better food.
"We cook better, we eat better and I think we
probably have more fun because of her," he said.
Mr Carlton recounted growing up in a time when
Australian food was "pretty bloody ordinary", when chicken was a
luxury served only on Christmas Day.
Mr Carlton told the crowd that when Ms Fulton wrote
"pineapple can bring a delightful Hawaiian touch to your meals" his
own mother had taken the advice to heart.
"Seizing on this daring innovation, my mother
went mad and we went through a stage of adding pineapple to everything —
pineapple sausages I recall at one stage."
Friday, December 27, 2019
FUNNY FRIDAY
This being the
last Funny Friday before the start of the new year, here is some humour to
usher in the year with a smile and a laugh . . .
Caution:
There is risqué
humour ahead, proceed at your risk.
------😊😊😊----
SOME HUMOUR
. . .
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I have a New
Year's Revolution.
It's to
spell-check everything before posting!
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A couple was on
their honeymoon, lying in bed, about ready to consummate their marriage when
the new bride says to the husband, "I have a confession to make, I'm not a
virgin."
The husband
replies, "That's no big thing in this day and age."
The wife
continues, "Yeah, I've been with one guy."
"Oh yeah?
Who was the guy?"
"Tiger
Woods."
"Tiger
Woods, the golfer?"
"Yeah."
"Well, he
is rich, famous and handsome. I can see why you went to bed with him."
The husband and
wife then make passionate love. When they are done, the husband gets up and
walks to the telephone.
"What are
you doing?" asks the wife.
The husband
says, "I'm hungry, I was going to call room service and get something to
eat."
"Tiger
wouldn't do that."
"Oh yeah?
What would Tiger do?"
"He would
come back to bed and do it a second time."
The husband
puts down the phone and goes back to bed to make love a second time. When they
finish, he gets up and goes over to the phone.
"Now what
are you doing?" she asks.
The husband
says, "I'm still hungry so I was going to get room service to get something
to eat."
"Tiger
wouldn't do that."
"Oh yeah?
What would Tiger do?"
"He would
come back to bed and do it again."
The guy slams
down the phone, goes back to bed, and makes love one more time. When they
finish he's tired and beat. He drags himself over to the phone and starts to
dial.
The wife asks,
"Are you calling room service?"
"No! I'm
calling Tiger Woods, to find out what the par is for this damn hole."
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I asked this
hot girl her New Years resolution.
She said “Fuck
you”, so I’m very excited for 2020.
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Four Russians
go to a hotel.
When they get
to the hotel, one of the comrades gets very tired and tries to get some sleep.
The other three annoy him all night and keep him from sleeping. The other three
began telling jokes about Putin, so he creates a plan.
The fourth
communist goes to the kitchen and asks for a cup of coffee. “But deliver it
exactly ten minutes from now.” The fourth communist goes to his room and waits.
Right before the coffee arrived, the three are making jokes about Putin. The
fourth communist turns to his comrades and says “You know they can hear us,
right?”
“That’s not
true!” cried one of the communists. “Prove it!” The fourth communist goes over
to a lamp and says “Could I have a cup of coffee?” At that moment, the waitress
comes in with his coffee. The fourth commie enjoys his coffee, and all four go
straight to sleep.
The next
morning, the fourth communist goes down and has breakfast. When he comes back he finds the room
ransacked and his comrades missing. He goes to the front desk and asks the
receptionist what happened. “The KGB took them,” she said. “Why didn’t they
take me?” asked the fourth communist. “President Putin liked your joke.”
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FROM THE VAULT .
. .
After returning
from his honeymoon in Florida with his new bride, Virginia, Luigi stopped in
his New York neighborhood barbershop to say hello to his friends.
Giovanni said,
"Hey, Luigi. How was'a da treep?"
Luigi said,
"Ever'thing was'a perfect except for da train'a ride down."
"What'a
you mean, Luigi?" asked Giovanni.
"Well, we
board'a da train at Grand Central'a Station. My beautiful'a Virginia had packed
a big'a basket a food with vino and cigars for'a me, and'a we were looking
'aforward to da trip. All was OK until we got'a hungry and opened up'a da
lunch'a basket.
"The
conductor came by, wagged his'a finger at us and'a say, 'No eat in dese'a car.
Must'a use'a dining car.'
"So, me
and my beautiful'a Virginia, we go to dining car, eat a big'a lunch and begin
to open'a bottle of vino.
Conductor come
again, wag his'a finger and say, 'No drink'a in dese'a car. Must'a use'a club'a
car.'
"So we go
to club'a car. While'a drinking vino, I start to light'a my big'a cigar.
The conductor,
he wag'a his finger again and say, 'No smoke'a in dese'a car. Must'a go to
smoker car.'
"We go to
smoker car and I smoke'a my cigar.
Later, my
beautiful Virginia and I, we go to sleeper car and'a go to bed.
And then here
come’a the conductor, he come'a through the car yelling, 'NO-FOLK'A,
VIRGINIA!'"
------😊😊😊----
LIMERICK OF THE
WEEK . . .
An original
limerick by moi . . .
I hope 2020's a blast.
Unlike the year
that has passed
However I fear,
The coming new year
Will be just the
same as the last.
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GALLERY . . .
------😊😊😊----
CORN CORNER . . .
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Yesterday my
doctor told me my chronic diarrhea is inherited.
Runs in the
family.
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Not to brag,
but I already have a date for New Year’s Eve.
December 31st.
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Instead of
singing Auld Lang Syne this New Year's, we should all sing "I Can See
Clearly Now."
Because
everyone will have 2020 vision.
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How do they say
“Happy New Year” in Australia?
ɹɐǝ⅄ ʍǝN ʎddɐH
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Knock knock.
Who's there?
Mary.
Mary who?
Mary Christmas!
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Anna.
Anna who?
Anna happy new
year!
Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year, Byters and readers.
Thursday, December 26, 2019
QUOTE FOR THE DAY
God bless the master of this house
And the mistress also
And all the little children
That round your table grow
The cattle in your stable
The dogs at your front door
And all that dwell within your gates
We'll wish you ten times more.
- Verse 1 from the song Soul Cake, from Sting’s 2009 album If on a Winter's Night... Hear the song by clicking on the following link:
Sting’s version appears to be an adaptation of the 1963 Peter, Paul and Mary song recorded as "A' Soalin". Hear it by clicking on:
See a live performance at:
The song was first collected as an English folk song in 1891.
Souling is a Christian practice carried out during Allhallowtide and Christmastide. The custom was popular in England with the earliest activity reported in 1511. It is still practised to a minor extent in Sheffield and Cheshire during Allhallowtide. The custom was also popular in Wales and has counterparts in the Philippines and Portugal that are practiced to this day. Souling involved a group of people visiting local farms and cottages. The merrymakers would sing a "traditional request for apples, ale, and soul cakes. The songs were traditionally known as Souler's songs and were sung in a lamenting tone.
A soul cake, also known as a soulmass-cake, is a small round cake which is traditionally made for Halloween, All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day to commemorate the dead in the Christian tradition. The cakes, often simply referred to as souls, are given out to soulers (mainly consisting of children and the poor) who go from door to door during the days of Allhallowtide singing and saying prayers "for the souls of the givers and their friends". The practice in England, known as souling, dates to the medieval period, and was continued there until the 1930s, by both Protestant and Catholic Christians. In Sheffield and Cheshire, the custom has continued into modern times. In Lancashire and in the North-east of England soul cakes were known as Harcakes.
Soul cakes
BOXING DAY FACTS AND TRIVIA
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Boxing Day is celebrated on the day after Christmas, December 26th each year in various countries around the world, generally those that were settled by the British Commonwealth. The countries celebrating Boxing Day include Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Greenland, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Kenya, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
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In spite of its name, Boxing Day has nothing to do with fisticuffs, the trashing of empty boxes left over from Christmas or the return of unwanted presents to department stores.
The term is of British origin, and the Oxford English Dictionary traces its earliest print attribution to 1833, four years before Charles Dickens referred to it in “The Pickwick Papers.” The exact roots of the holiday name are unknown, but there are two leading theories, both of which are connected to charity traditionally distributed to lower classes on the day after Christmas.
One idea is that December 26 was the day centuries ago when lords of the manor and aristocrats typically distributed “Christmas boxes” often filled with small gifts, money and leftovers from Christmas dinner to their household servants and employees, who were required to work on December 25, in recognition of good service throughout the year. These boxes were, in essence, holiday bonuses.
Another popular theory is that the Boxing Day name arose from the alms boxes that were placed in churches during the Advent season for the collection of monetary donations from parishioners. Clergy members distributed the contents of the boxes to the poor on December 26, which is also the feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr and a figure known for acts of charity. (Ireland celebrates December 26 as St. Stephen’s Day.)
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The Oxford English Dictionary gives the earliest attestations from Britain in the 1830s, defining it as "the first weekday after Christmas day, observed as a holiday on which postmen, errand boys, and servants of various kinds expect to receive a Christmas box".
The term "Christmas box" dates back to the 17th century, and among other things meant a present or gratuity given at Christmas
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In Britain, it was a custom for tradesmen to collect "Christmas boxes" of money or presents on the first weekday after Christmas as thanks for good service throughout the year. This is mentioned in Samuel Pepys' diary entry for 19 December 1663.
This custom is linked to an older British tradition where the servants of the wealthy were allowed the next day to visit their families since they would have to serve their masters on Christmas Day. The employers would give each servant a box to take home containing gifts, bonuses, and sometimes leftover food. Until the late 20th century there continued to be a tradition among many in the UK to give a Christmas gift, usually cash, to vendors although not on Boxing Day as many would not work on that day.
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In England the practice of hunting wrens was once a popular activity on Boxing Day. It was considered unlucky to kill wrens on any other day.
Today Wren Day, also known as Wren's Day, Day of the Wren, or Hunt the Wren Day, is celebrated on 26 December, St. Stephen's Day in a number of countries across Europe. The tradition consists of "hunting" a fake wren and putting it on top of a decorated pole. Then the crowds of mummers, or strawboys, celebrate the wren (also pronounced wran) by dressing up in masks, straw suits, and colourful motley clothing. They form music bands and parade through towns and villages. These crowds are sometimes called wrenboys.
In past times and into the 20th century, an actual bird was hunted by wrenboys on St. Stephen's Day. The captured wren was tied to the wrenboy leader's staff or a net would be put on a pitchfork. It would be sometimes kept alive, as the popular mummers' parade song states, "A penny or tuppence would do it no harm". The song, of which there are many variations, asked for donations from the townspeople.
The custom is kept alive in parts of Ireland with echoes of the tradition are to be found on the Isle of Man and, centuries ago, on the English mainland and in particular in Wales. The tradition is so ancient it may well be druidic (the gaelic word for wren is dreolín, which possibly derives from draoi ean, or ‘Druid bird’). Why kill the bird? Well, perhaps the tradition simply marked the end of the year with a mid-winter sacrifice, or commemorated the early Christian attempts to drive out paganism.
The Green & Gold Wren on Green Street in Dingle. Ireland. The Wren’s Day tradition has survived in Dingle, as well as other pockets around the country, including parts of North Kerry and West Limerick.
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During the Age of Exploration it was not uncommon to place a Christmas box on ships. The money put in the box by sailors, for good luck, was later given to a priest. The priest would open the box on Boxing Day and distribute the money to the poor.
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Although America has decided that, much like the metric system and extra U's in certain words, it will not embrace the Brit tradition of Boxing Day, it is observed in some U.S. states.
The U.S. states that celebrate Boxing Day as a public holiday include Texas, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky and Kansas.
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Some have seen Boxing Day as a day to return Christmas gifts to the store if they were unwanted or needed to be exchanged.
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In Britain Boxing Day is a bank holiday and has been since 1871. British banks also stay closed on Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Whitmonday, and the last Monday in August.
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In the Christian Church, December 26th is also the Feast of St. Stephen. This day commemorates St. Stephen for his work in the church, mostly caring for the poor and for widows. He was eventually stoned to death by an angry mob. He is remembered for begging God not to punish his killers as he was being stoned to death.
Also that good King Wenceslas Good King Wenceslas looked out on the feast of Stephen, when the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even.
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By the way, have you ever listened to, or read, more than just the first verse of Good King Wenceslas? Well, here it is, the whole thing . . .
Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the feast of Stephen
When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even
Brightly shone the moon that night
Though the frost was cruel
When a poor man came in sight
Gath'ring winter fuel
"Hither, page, and stand by me
If thou know'st it, telling
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?"
"Sire, he lives a good league hence
Underneath the mountain
Right against the forest fence
By Saint Agnes' fountain."
"Bring me flesh and bring me wine
Bring me pine logs hither
Thou and I will see him dine
When we bear him thither."
Page and monarch forth they went
Forth they went together
Through the rude wind's wild lament
And the bitter weather
"Sire, the night is darker now
And the wind blows stronger
Fails my heart, I know not how,
I can go no longer."
"Mark my footsteps, my good page
Tread thou in them boldly
Thou shalt find the winter's rage
Freeze thy blood less coldly."
In his master's steps he trod
Where the snow lay dinted
Heat was in the very sod
Which the Saint had printed
Therefore, Christian men, be sure
Wealth or rank possessing
Ye who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing.
The words to the carol "Good King Wenceslas" were written by John Mason Neale and published in 1853, the music originates in Finland 300 years earlier. This Christmas carol is unusual as there is no reference in the lyrics to the nativity. Good King Wenceslas was the king of Bohemia in the 10th century.
Good King Wenceslas was a Catholic and was martyred following his assassination by his brother Boleslaw and his supporters, his Saint's Day is September 28th, and he is the Patron Saint of the Czech Republic. St. Stephen's feast day was celebrated on 26th December which is why this song is sung as a Christmas carol.
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South Africa changed the name in 1994 from Boxing Day to the Day of Goodwill as a removal of colonial symbols.
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Some countries, including Australia, have turned Boxing Day into a huge shopping day, similar to Black Friday in the US, the day after Thanksgiving, with huge markdowns and sales.
For many merchants, Boxing Day has become the day of the year with the greatest revenue. Many retailers open very early (typically 5 am or even earlier) and offer doorbuster deals and loss leaders to draw people to their stores. It is not uncommon for long queues to form early in the morning of 26 December, hours before the opening of shops holding the big sales, especially at big-box consumer electronics retailers. Many stores have a limited quantity of big draw or deeply discounted items.
In recent years, retailers have expanded deals to "Boxing Week".
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In Australia, Boxing Day is a public holiday in all jurisdictions except the state of South Australia, where a public holiday known as Proclamation Day is celebrated on the first weekday after Christmas Day or the Christmas Day holiday.
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In Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, Test cricket matches are played on Boxing Day.
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Boxing Day in Sydney is also the occasion for the start of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.
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On Boxing Day 2004 a massive earthquake created a tsunami around the Indian Ocean resulting in the deaths of over 300,000 people.
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National Candy Cane Day is celebrated 26th December every year in the United States.
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The 10th season of M.A.S.H. featured an episode called “’Twas the Day After Christmas,” which sees British soldiers giving the 4077th the idea of following "Boxing Day tradition" by having the officers and service members switch positions and responsibilities for the day.
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