Why did Boxing Day become a Bank Holiday in 1871?
The Bank Holidays Act of 1871 introduced four Bank Holidays in England and Wales Boxing Day, Good Friday, Whitsun and August. Christmas Day and Easter Sunday were already recognised as religious holidays.
The reasons for the Act are not particularly easy to discern, except for the point that the UK in general had fewer such holidays than the rest of Europe- which is still true. Part of the reason may have been to try and counter the continuing practice of Saint Monday, where workers extended the weekend by a further day.
Parliament later determined that if Christmas and Boxing Day fell at the weekend then the following days would be Bank Holidays. In addition from 1974 New Years Day became a Bank Holiday in England and Wales (the 1871 Act had made New Years Day not Boxing Day a holiday in Scotland) and Boxing Day a Bank Holiday in Scotland….
Boxing Day was mentioned by Dickens in the Pickwick Papers but not in a Christmas Carol (1843) where Scrooge’s clerk was reluctantly given the whole of Christmas Day off but told to be at work early the following day.
However a check on the New Year edition of the Chartist paper the Northern Star for 1852 (its last year of publication) reveals Boxing Day crowds at London theatres. In addition there was Boxing Day entertainment at O’Connorville, part of the Chartist Land Plan on the outskirts of Ricksmanworth (now expensive housing..)
Perhaps in 1871 Parliament bowed to the inevitable
Northern Star 3rd January 1852
Christmas Amusements
Drury Lane
Mr Bunn once more lessee of this theatre commenced on his new course of management on Boxing night. The house was filled to overflowing with a holiday audience
Astleys (225 Westminster Bridge Rd)
Holiday nights are always bumpers at this theatre and Boxing night was no exception to the rule. The audience was as numerous, as patient, and although noisy, as good humoured as any manager could desire.
Christmas at O’Connorville (Ricksmanworth)
A tea party, soiree and ball was held in the School Room on Boxing Day, on which occasion a goodly number of allotees, their wives and families assembled to take part in the entertainments provided.. singing and dancing were kept up to an early hour in the morning
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