We are a professional review company that receives compensation from companies whose products we review. We test each product thoroughly and give high marks only to the ones that are the very best. We are independently owned, and the opinions expressed here are our own.

Introduction

In this blog post, we will discuss why we celebrate Boxing Day or Second Christmas Day, which also is known as the martyr day of Saint Stephen in the Catholic liturgical calendar.

It is about him and his martyrdom that most of this article will be about.

It’s also known as Boxing Day since most people in the English-speaking world got Christmas gifts from their employers on this day.

In Scandinavia (except Finland) it’s known as Second Christmas Day.

In Finland and many other countries, it’s known as Saint Stephen’s Day.

So, the obvious question is: Why do we celebrate his day today?

Who Was Saint Stephen?

Saint Stephen was an archdeacon or the eldest and for this reason the head of deacons (or first deacon if we follow the Greek meaning of the first word) in Jerusalem.

It is said that he preached about the resurrected Christ in different synagogues inside the city.

However, he was accused of blasphemy since he put the risen Christ on the right-hand side of God.

He was found guilty of the crime he was accused of by the Sanhedrin.

Saint Stephen was then put to death by stoning, a sentence that is prescribed by the Jewish law.

There have been many different opinions about this text and many different traditions about what Saint Stephen said to the Sanhedrin.

You can read his speech or at least the longest version of it in Acts 7.

The most interesting thing to note is that the crowd that performed the stoning laid their mantles down on a young man from Tarsus, known as Saul.

This is interesting since he himself would later suffer martyrdom but also spread the teachings of Jesus to the pagans as the apostle Saint Paul.

We haven’t found a lot of reliable information in our sources to write more about him here and we don’t want to spread any kind of hatred since we are always advocating love and respect for everyone.

Why Do We Celebrate Saint Stephen’s Day?

We celebrate Saint Stephen since he is the first recorded martyr.

In Eastern Orthodox churches his sainthood day is the 8th of January while the Western Church (Catholics, Lutherans, and Anglicans especially) celebrate his day of sainthood today, on the 26th of December.

In Finland, there was a popular “ride of saint Stephen’s day” that were a sleigh ride with horses that occurred on this day.

In Sweden, there is a song that is called “the song of Saint Stephen” that is traditionally performed by a male chorus during the celebration of the Saint Lucia on the 13th of December.

It refers to “his (Stephens) five horses” that he “used to give water” but it should also be noted that the song has some pre-Christian elements and references to the star of Bethlehem.

Next blog post

The next blog post will be published on Wednesday the 30th of December 2015.

It will be written by Rickard and will be about what has happened during 2015 and what will happen in 2016.

See you then,
The Chi Rho Dating Team