Happy Boxing Day from Tricia McGill

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A great deal has been written about Christmas Day, its history and its traditions. Whether Christian or otherwise probably everyone in the world knows its meaning and many share the day with family and friends. But not so many know about Boxing Day, its origins and meaning—myself included. To me as I grew up it was just the day after Christmas Day and I never took the time to ponder on why it was called such.

I remember it as a day for eating leftover turkey, home-made mince pies and pudding, and the family lazing around or playing cards in the afternoon and into evening. Card games were a staple pastime with my family. When not partying or arguing, any family gathering eventually ended up with a game of cards. The stakes were high, usually matchsticks. One of my father’s favourites was Cribbage: http://www.cribbage.org/rules/rule1.asp

This game needed a board and I brought my Dad’s one with me around the world and have put it away safely, so darned safe that I currently don’t know where it is. Perhaps I have given it to a younger family member for safe keeping. It wasn’t smart like the modern ones but brown with curved edges, something like this picture. The pegs were lost ages ago but my memories were of matchsticks always being used.

Apparently Boxing Day is only celebrated in a few countries, and likely only those with connections to the UK such as Australia, Canada (not so sure of) South Africa and New Zealand.  It’s also celebrated in Germany (Zweite Feiertag) Any German folk who read this please feel free to correct me on my spelling.

It all began in the Middle Ages around 800 years ago in the UK. In those days an alms box was kept in the churches and opened the day after Christmas Day, so the contents could be distributed among the poor folk in the parish, of which there were likely to be many. This tradition is still kept in some churches and the “box” still opened on Boxing Day. As a side note, some collection boxes in Holland were made out of earthenware in the shape of pigs, so it is likely this was where the term “Piggy Bank” was born.

Another memory I have was that the postman, milkman, baker, butcher etc., in fact any delivery man, was always given what my parents called a “Christmas Box” which was a small payment and as much as they could afford. This tradition apparently springs from the old one where large manor houses with servants always gave the staff a day off on Boxing Day to spend with their families and they were also usually given a gift. When we first settled in Australia (in the days when the postman etc. actually knocked at the door to deliver) it was custom to give them bottles of beer or similar. Even the garbage men received something in those days. This custom all stopped because the garbage truck now picks up the bins with his truck’s mechanical arm and the driver has no contact with us except the occasional wave as he passes. Similarly the postman/woman whizzes by on his/her mini motorbike, barely stopping long enough to deposit the mail in our letterbox. Those were the good old days when we actually had a few welcome words to say to the people who served us instead of talking to machines as we do in a lot of our larger stores today.

A lot of sport is played on Boxing Day. Here we have the cricket, which is a massive event in Melbourne. The Boxing Day Test match is held between our National team and a visiting team. Not sure who they are playing against this year as I am not a cricket fan. Another huge sporting event is the Bluewater Classic, a yacht race that starts on Boxing Day from Sydney Harbour and covers 630 nautical miles to end in Hobart, beautiful Tasmania. I was fortunate to see the start of the race years ago from one of the great vantage points around the Harbour with a yachting friend of ours. It was quite a spectacular sight.

Another great memory from my childhood in London was the pantomime. My mother ensured that I saw one most years, and these mostly started playing around Christmas time or soon after. Sometimes we would go to the local church hall where amateurs performed and other times to a theatre. What a fun outing that was. It is a tradition that is still carried on in the UK where nowadays well-known celebrities take part. The ugly sisters of Cinderella were always men in drag, and Aladdin oddly always played by a female. The audience shared the fun, as part of the enjoyment was that you were urged to join in with lots of shouting and booing etc.

 The 26^th of December is also known as St. Stephen’s Day, and there were two St. Stephen’s in history, one believed to have been the first Christian Martyr. He was said to have been stoned to death by some who did not believe in Jesus. The other St. Stephen was a missionary who was a devout animal lover who especially loved horses. Also a Martyr, he was killed by pagans in Sweden.

One of the carols I loved as a child was Good King Wenceslas. The rest of the carol has faded from my memory but I well recall the first verse, which of course was set on the Feast of Stephen (St. Stephen’s Day). Because the good King was helping the poor there was a strong connection to Boxing Day.

“Good King Wenceslas looked out, upon 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, gathering winter fuel.”

How many of you were singing along with that as I was as I wrote it.

Here in Australia the post-Christmas sales start on Boxing Day where the stock left over after the Christmas rush is sold at reduced prices. It is often a scramble to get a bargain, and I personally take no part in it. I hate shopping at the best of times and the idea of being pushed and shoved by bargain-hunters does not appeal to me, but many make it a regular outing and have been known to pick up phenomenal bargains

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My appreciation to the following for most of the above facts:

https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/australia/boxing-day

https://www.whychristmas.com/customs/boxingday.shtml

https://www.whychristmas.com/customs/carols_stories.shtml#good_king_wenceslas

I wish everyone a magnificent 2018 and may we all enjoy the best of health and happiness. And wouldn’t it be the best year ever if we all finally learnt to live together in the harmony we yearn for.

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A small tribute from Tricia McGill

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There are times in every writer’s life when their Muse will not play fair, when the page remains blank far too long, when the ideas do not spring to mind, and the enthusiasm to do what has always come easily fades. This has been one of those periods in my life.

I have wracked my brain for something to fill the page but nothing will come. It is not a case of writer’s block. I’ve had that before, more than a few times, and have always overcome it by simply writing any old thing that pops into my head, and before I know it, a page is filled.

No, this is far more serious. I’ve always said that life is a series of pathways, and we choose which path to take on our journey, but when Fate plays a nasty hand in things and we do not have a choice or say in the matter, then it becomes disastrous.

I have been fortunate in that I had a happy childhood raised within a family who always saw the funny side of life and despite not having the luxuries of life always remained positive. My parents were good, honest people who strove to do the best for their large family. I married a hard-working, kind man who loved me enough to let me do whatever I wanted. A man who helped me through many difficult situations, and provided me with all the encouragement needed when I chose to follow my dream of becoming a writer.

A few years ago I encouraged one of my sisters to write her life story. If I live long enough I will edit and finish it for her, as although she tells of her many trials and tribulations in the pages she penned, she in no way told the complete story. Currently this beloved sister is very sick, hence the blockage in my brain. She is not afraid of leaving us, in fact in the last weeks has prayed to go more than a few times rather than spend more days unable to continue in the way she wants to. But I am afraid of losing my lifelong friend who has been the best sister I could ever wish for. I have faced grief a lot of times in my life and perhaps time does heal. I think perhaps this is only half true as a tiny part of it remains with us forever, but should never be dwelt on, just touched now and then when memories invade the day to day activities. But then again what is life but a series of memories.

Anyway, to get back to my sister’s story. She has suffered more than any one person should but has always overcome her many health issues stoically. In fact she has concealed the true extent of her childhood health problems so well that most who know her have no idea of the suffering endured throughout her life.

I re-read her story last week and this is how she ended it (she wrote this in 2009).

“There are a few regrets. I wish my Mother had lived to see me able to drive a car, I think she would have loved to have sat beside me. I also wished she had been able to see what my sister Pat has achieved with her writing. I wish she had heard me play my music, and to have seen my paintings, I think she would have been very proud of us. This has been my life up to now. There have been a lot of tears, but mostly laughter. I have always tried to be nice to people. I have always tried to be kind. Most of all, I always try to smile. I have a beautiful family, and some lovely friends. You can’t ask for more than that.”

And that says it all—if only everyone could live by those words. Just be nice to people, that’s really what it is all about.

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Music evokes sweet memories—Tricia McGill

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While transferring stored music files from my computer to my new tablet I came upon songs I haven’t played in a long time and as I listened to each one an almost forgotten memory returned of the exact moment when I heard that particular tune for the first time and why I fell in love with it then. It’s likely that younger people will not have heard of some of these songs or my favorite singers, but like old photos or mementos, each holds a special place in my heart.

Most Saturday mornings my sister and I would visit the local market where a variety of stallholders plied their wares. This sister had a passion for earrings and would spend hours deciding which to purchase, whereas my preference was the music stall where the latest records (remember them, those vinyl things that were in vogue in the 50/60s and beyond).

This was after we possessed a record player of our own, but before that, one of my already married sisters owned one of these wonderful gadgets. She had a copy of Al Martino singing “Here In My Heart”. I’m sure I wore that out, as every time I visited her I played it over and over. I think that was one of my very early crushes—not on Al who was far too old for me then—but with his voice. If you have never heard it give it a Google and I defy you to say it doesn’t do something for you.

My list of heart stoppers is a mile long, so I will choose a few of my favorites:

David Whitfield singing “Beyond the Stars”. I was a pimply teenager when I purchased this and his “Answer Me” at the market, along with Dickie Valentine singing “A Blossom Fell” (this brought back memories of a boy I went out with just once who thought it was cool to serenade me with his rendering—believe me, it wasn’t).

“Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers. (Another one to Google if you have never heard their version). My best friend, who happened to be my cousin, and I would sing this out loud as we walked home from a dance. 

We would go to a local dance hall a couple of times a week and at this time I loved anything by Guy Mitchell. One boy there was Guy’s double and he broke my heart, for although he seemed to like me he took another girl home. Remember “My Truly Truly Fair”?  Ah, sweet memories! Likewise, Johnny Ray and his “Cry” evokes so many memories of that dance hall along with Elvis’s “Heartbreak Hotel”. I can still see us as if it was yesterday. Oh boy, two silly girls at a table in the bar section of the hall, when the announcer on the radio said it was this young man’s first big hit, and I still get that same old tingle in my tummy when I recall the moment he started to sing.

Any song by Vera Lynn, but especially “We’ll Meet Again” or “Yours”, take me back to the old home in North London when I was very young and my mother or sisters would sing along with Vera while I played on the floor, usually behind an armchair in the corner. For some reason I have many memories of me behind a chair. It must have been my private and safe place where I would invent games alone for hours while my older, noisy, siblings went about their life around me.

And what about Bill Haley and the Comets and “Rock around The Clock”? My cousin and I practiced our rock and rolling to him and his “See You Later Alligator”! And there were my brothers laughing at us and our antics while we cavorted in the living room. We went to see Bill and his band perform live in London. An experience never to be forgotten.

Last but definitely not least there was Frankie Laine, my absolute all-time favorite. We also saw him perform live. I can still feel the shivers up my spine that made me hot and bothered when he cracked that whip while singing “Mule Train”. Then there was “Rawhide” and “Cool Water” <sigh> and when he sang “Danny Boy”, well, that was simply the best. I owned just about every one of his recordings and don’t ask me why, but left most of them behind when we came to Australia. And would you believe, my dear father in law sold them all. <Another big sigh> Never mind, I now have his recordings right here on my computer (and on my new tablet & phone) to play at any time to take me right back to my heydays of youth and glory.

Perhaps it is just me, but not many of the modern singers match up to those oldies. For one thing, you understood every word they sang—no mumbling or rapping in those days—just good old fashioned talent and music to dream by. And we didn't swoon over them just because they were young and handsome, but because their songs and style gave us shivers and memories to cherish.

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