At some point on our walk to work, I remember that today is Boxing Day. And I have no idea why it’s called Boxing Day. So I ask Dawn, who does, after all, hold a master’s degree in English along with another in medieval studies. Who better to ask?

“Do they call it Boxing Day because of someone somewhere originally having to put something or some things in boxes?” I ask her. “Like servants having to put away all the Christmas decorations in boxes?”

I’m immediately suspicious when Dawn simply just agrees. I ask her if she knows or is just humoring me. She doesn’t know, but that’s as good an explanation as any, she says. Later Wikipedia and Snopes research tells me that nobody especially or definitively knows the origin of the name.