Boxing Day - Celebrating Generosity and Tradition
Shaina Tranquilino
December 26, 2023
As the hustle and bustle of Christmas Day settles, there is no time to rest as the much-anticipated Boxing Day follows suit on December 26th. Originating in the United Kingdom, this holiday has evolved into a day when people across the globe come together to celebrate generosity, tradition, and giving back.
While many may believe that Boxing Day is all about shopping sales and grabbing bargains, the true essence of this day lies in its historical roots. The exact origin of the term "Boxing Day" remains debated among historians, but most agree that it dates back centuries ago when servants and tradespeople would receive a gift or bonus from their employers. These gifts were often placed in small boxes, hence the name "Boxing" Day. It was a way for employers to show appreciation for their hard work throughout the year.
Over time, this tradition expanded beyond just employees receiving gifts from their bosses. It became a day when families and friends exchanged presents with each other as well. This practice remains an integral part of modern-day celebrations, with many households reserving December 26th for exchanging gifts they didn't have time to open on Christmas Day.
However, Boxing Day isn't solely about material exchanges; it's also about extending kindness to those less fortunate. In many countries, including Canada and Australia, this holiday serves as an opportunity to support charitable causes through various events and donations. Families engage in acts of charity by donating clothes, food items, or volunteering at local shelters. Some even organize fundraisers or participate in sporting events to raise funds for charities close to their hearts.
In addition to these acts of generosity, sports play a significant role in Boxing Day traditions. In particular, cricket matches are wildly popular in countries like Australia and South Africa during this time of year. Families gather at stadiums or tune in on televisions to watch thrilling matches while enjoying picnics and spending quality time together. In the UK, football matches also take center stage, with stadiums packed to capacity as fans cheer on their favourite teams.
For shopaholics, Boxing Day sales provide an excellent opportunity to snag some fantastic deals. Stores slash prices, offering discounts that attract eager shoppers looking for post-Christmas savings. While it's true that shopping has become a significant part of this holiday, it's important not to lose sight of its deeper meaning - giving back and expressing gratitude.
As we celebrate Boxing Day each year, let us remember the history and traditions that make this day so special. It is a time to appreciate those who work tirelessly behind the scenes, extend generosity towards others less fortunate, and spend cherished moments with loved ones. Whether you're participating in charitable acts or indulging in retail therapy, may the spirit of Boxing Day remind us all of the immeasurable value of kindness and selflessness.
So, as December 26th dawns upon us once again, let us embrace the essence of this unique holiday with open hearts and open hands. Together, we can continue making Boxing Day a celebration of generosity and tradition for generations to come.
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When Schrodinger was talking about the cat in box that's both alive and dead, he was talking about Kalina. She's a goddess's familiar, she's a plague, she worked for Fantasy MI6, she died, she came back, she got rage stared, she snapped her own neck, she came back as the companion for a god borne from a Fantasy Mormon child's misplaced belief. She's alive and dead, good and evil. She worked tirelessly for 800 years towards one goal and then fucking abandoned it (maybe.) Her goddess thinks she can fix her. Her goddess's wife always hated her. She is everyone's problem at all times and holy shit is she a Problem. What a fucking legend.
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"I would help you bury a corpse!"
Well I would bury yours.
I would carry your weight on my shoulders and walk for miles and miles and miles. I would bring you where you always said your heart belonged. Where you always wanted to rest and explore. I would watch the sun set and dig the most comfortable grave for you to sleep in. I would carve your name into a stone with my own hands and write how much I loved you. I would lay you down into the freshly turned earth with all the gentleness I could muster and press a kiss to your cold forehead. I would tell you goodnight and wish you beautiful dreams. I would cover your pale body with the soil and the salt of my tears. I would plant your favourite flowers upon your grave. I would visit you every time your absence would weigh too heavily on my soul. I would give you rest. I would give you peace. Because it's what you would deserve, above all else.
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I stumbled across a man talking about having survived the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami when he was a small boy, and he mentioned in passing an entire village that had been swept away - that a foreign government rebuilt the buildings, but that the village has remained empty, as people fear unsettled spirits of the dead are still there.
I don't blame them. I think I wouldn't be able to move in to one of those buildings either, for the same reason.
There are still emptied-out towns in Japan since the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011. Even when people are told they can go back to rebuilt homes, few do. Retaking the towns happens slowly, uneasily. People live alongside a wrenching tear in the universe where their loved ones should be, surrounded by spaces where half-second glimpses of those long gone can happen at any time. With every breath, every blink.
I keep thinking about buildings as grave markers, empty rooms with ghosts living within them but no breath ever moving the air. Vines and leaves winding up walls and flowers blooming on pathways where there should have been footsteps. The sounds of birds singing in buildings that once held a crush and chatter of crowds.
Buildings as cairns, as tombs without bodies.
Buildings as empty memorials to a life that abruptly ended even for the survivors of the day itself. What was rebuilt was something else entirely. Can you live inside a wooden ghost? Can you sleep in a bed within its lungs? Can you wake up each morning and look up at bones?
Buildings as places where a teacup left on a saucer for twenty years seems still like it might suddenly rise to cool lips. Buildings where chairs line up before an arcade, dust-covered and decrepit but still brightly-colored, ready to welcome in players who are never coming. Buildings with the eyes of people. Buildings that watch, and wait, for the living to come and remember the dead.
Buildings as places where your fingers are always just brushing those of someone who should still be here. The weight of their presence in those empty rooms. The way you can almost hear their voice calling for you from just out of sight.
Buildings as memories of a future that didn't happen.
Buildings as reminders of a universe where this loss hadn't happened yet, where this confluence of horrifying moments hadn't yet come together. Buildings as grave markers, as memorials, as defiance against nature that indifferently destroyed us and never took notice of the loss. Buildings as our insistence on remembering that there was a loss, and that grief lives and breathes even if those we lost no longer do.
Buildings as our cries that you should still be here.
Buildings as thousands of voices whispering back, I am here. I will always be here. And so will a part of you.
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Just how all the parents assumed a mind control thing after what the eggs told them about Forever.
And just how as soon as Bad talked to @v@ he knew that that wasnt the case. He knew he wasnt talking to Forever at all. He knows what a mind controlled Forever looks like. So he knows this was someone completely different taking the body of his friend.
So why does @v@ need Bad in prison for 3 days? To restore order? Sounds very unbelievable assuming it has something to do with dark cucurucho which stands for chaos not order. Was Bad too much of a threat? Just him being around and him being important to Forever? Is Forever still in there and there is a chance of him overpowering @v@ under the right conditions? Is there a chance of Bad reaching him?
But also @v@ was not lying when it said he doesnt only know Forevers weaknesses. Bad is already losing it being stuck in the prison and having his son kidnapped (again)...
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Dark fantasy AU?
-In hindsight, as he's being chased through the forest, hunted by mythical creatures is not where Reggie thought he'd end up when his folks told him they were moving to Los Angeles. Honestly, considering how he used to roam the woods and fields near his Meemaw's farm, the fact that he'd stumbled into a fairy circle near the beach was almost insulting.
-It's not even that he manages to outrun them. It's that one night (he thinks it's night, though time moves differently here and light and dark are all tangled up and is the purple haze of the sky supposed to be dusk or dawn or just a dark stop of the forest?) he'd decided to just... give up.
He couldn't remember how long he'd been running, running from the pounding of hooves and the yapping of dogs that did not look anything like what a dog should look like. He couldn't remember a time where he wasn't hungry, or thirsty, or tired, but something inside of him just kept making him run and run and run
-But he'd had enough. So he just sat down, with his back towards the noise, and hoped they'll kill him quickly. And to comfort himself, he sang the lullaby his Meemaw used to sing when he was scared of the thunder.
-That's what saved him. One of the fae, Caleb, was so charmed by the song that instead of doing whatever it is they did with their prey, he bundled Reggie up and took him to his... castle. Dwelling. Domain.
-He was dressed in finery and made to sing as Caleb and the other fae danced and ate and did things that Reggie very much had not wanted to see, thank you very much. But eventually, they slept, and Reggie met... the other humans who were trapped here.
-Luke, a young boy who had run away from home to become a musician in 1875. He was distraught to hear Reggie tell him it was the nineties now. Even more distraught when Reggie clarified it was the 1990s.
-There was Alex, who had been cast out of his village for reasons he did not want to share, but that Reggie figured out pretty quickly when he saw the way he looked at Willie. He'd fallen asleep near a fairy circle, and the promises he'd been made had been so tempting, he'd said yes before he fully understood the deal.
-And then there was Willie. The boy who had been stolen from his parents, a changeling left in his place. Who had grown up here, a part of this world yet not really. Who did not know what the other boys meant when they talked about years, or America, or really the whole concept of 'family'.
-Luke's the one who tells them of their escape plan. Alex is worried they can't trust Reggie not to rat him out to Caleb, and Reggie is like: um excuse me I was just hunted for sport for who knows how long you think I wanna help that guy?
-But before he can Willie just tilts his head and says: his heart is pure.
-Which is very sweet but also a little creepy.
-Anyway, they do manage to escape Caleb's clutches somehow, and end up back in the human world.
-Being yeeted out of a little ring of mushrooms in the soil of a plant Ray overwatered in the big plant wall of the Molina studio was not particularly pleasant, okay. Considering a real human should not be able to fit through that. But Willie explained that as soon as a fairy portal grew, it was only a manner of time that the fairies would notice it and stake it out to see what they could lure to their realm.
-Somehow, Luke and Alex get thrown clear across the room, Luke slamming against the door, Alex dropping onto the concrete floor.
-Reggie's not sure if him crashing against a pretty wooden piano is better or worse. The sound it made was definitely worse.
-Somehow, Willie ends up sitting crosslegged on the little piano bench, and he turns and quickly crushes up the mushrooms to destroy the portal.
-Julie, of course, is screaming, Alex and Luke and Reggie are screaming. Willie is trying to explain to Julie she over-watered her fern and pouts when she runs away.
-No they're not ghosts but they are changed and they all have weird powers. Luke nearly cries with joy that he can still summon his guitar. Alex is really not okay with this whole 'walking through walls' thing. Reggie is sad he cannot summon a puppy or a pizza.
-Willie can teleport short distances and is shocked to learn humans can't just do that? You have to walk everywhere? Or ride a horse. What's a car? What's roller skates? He needs to see one of these skateboad things immediately, let's summon the human girl back to ask for one. What can they trade for a skateboard?
-They're kind of freaked out at the whole 2020 thing, but hey, Reggie's like: at least it hasn't been a hundred years like when I told Luke about the 90s.
-Queue canon but it's even worse and more chaotic.
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