Why the 26th of December might be the most important football holiday.

For many countries, the 26th of December is a day dedicated to celebrating the holy Feast of Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr. In countries such as Ireland, Wales, Italy, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Norway, Belgium, Sweden, Croatia, and certain parts of Spain and France, this holiday is exclusively celebrated on the 26th of December, the second day of Christmastide. For other Easter Christian and Orthodox countries, such as Bulgaria, Saint Stephen’s Day is celebrated on the 27th of December. Some countries even offer fun activities in celebration of Saint Stephen’s Day - such as in Sweden and the ‘ride of St Stephen’s Day’, where you can sleigh ride with horses! 

Finally, some countries listed above have alternative festivities for this holiday: whilst Northern Ireland celebrates Boxing Day (more on this shortly), two counties in the Republic of Ireland, Kerry and Limerick, declare the 26th of December as Wren Day. As for Wales, the holiday isn’t named Saint Stephen’s but rather Gwyl San Steffan, for the Catalonians in Spain, Sant Esteve, and for the Alsatians in France, Sainte Étienne. Lastly, in some regions in Germany, this Catholic holiday is simply known as the second day of Christmas. 

Originally a holiday dedicated to giving gifts to the poor as part of Christmas celebrations, Boxing Day has developed into a quite commercialised holiday rather similarly to Black Friday. But let’s get to the root of it first. 

Some say that this holiday dates back to the Middle Age when alms boxes were placed outside of Chrisitian churches to collect donations for the unfortunate during the holy holiday season. Others speculate that this rather dates back to the late Roman era whereby similar boxes were placed to collect offerings for the Feast of Saint Stephen rather than donations for the poor.

In later years, and in Britain more specifically, Boxing Day as it is known now was established by the Sunday Trading Act of 1994, an otherwise strategic marketing scheme for people to take advantage of post-Christmas sales in shops. 

Now, what we’ve all been waiting for. Indeed, the Victorian and Edwardian football culture in England and Wales is what has made this holiday an important tradition and thus a true football-specific holiday.

England and Wales have been especially faithful to this holiday for decades, seen as a perfect occasion to play football outside of the office. Before Boxing Day was ever officially recognised as a holiday according to the 1871 Bank Holiday Act, British and Welsh teams used to play on Christmas day as a holiday tradition. After 1871, teams and clubs took advantage of this two-day holiday to fill in the seats of their stadiums - very clever! But once Christmas Day became a holy holiday to be spent exclusively with family, outdoor communal entertainment went into decline and public transport was minimised on the 25th of December, rendering the Boxing Day exclusive football holiday. Thus, this football tradition was officially moved and made exclusive on Boxing Day, the 26th of December.