What is Boxing Day in the English Premier League?

Boxing day is the day after Christmas, mainly originated to gift poor people. This day originated in Great Britain and is now celebrated in some countries which were previously formed as a part of the British Empire. However, many sports, especially football, dominate Boxing Day in the United Kingdom. There are plenty of other sports like horse racing, cricket, etc. are organized on this day, but football is the main interest.

As the football competition of the UK is English Premier League oriented, boxing day and EPL are interrelated. In this article, we will try to find out this relation and tell you what is boxing day in the English Premier League. Hopefully, you will find the facts and knowledge that you were searching for. So, let’s get started.

What is Boxing Day in the English Premier League?

Literally, boxing day is a traditional holiday after Christmas in England. It falls on 26th December. This day is specialized for gifting poor people just after Christmas. Here the term “boxing day” came from an event.

In the 18th century, this term was first used. At that time, people present gifts for their employees and servants working for them on Christmas in beautiful boxes. For gifting people with boxes, this day had got huge popularity as boxing day.

Besides this gift-presenting tradition, many big football matches were used to organize on this day. According to the Association of Football Statisticians, 3,730 matches in the English Football League have been organized on Boxing Day.

From that period to now, boxing day has meant many significant football competitions in the UK. Every year, English Premier League organizes a great competitive match on this day. So, in the English Premier League, boxing day is a great day for entertainment with different competitive matches on the day after Christmas.  

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How Boxing Day Became an English Premier League Tradition?

In this recent age, Christmas is a totally free day, just like other holidays. But this was not the tradition in the United Kingdom before.

A few decades ago, many different sports competitions were conducted on this day. Before massive circulation and usage of the television, Christmas was used to celebrate with Football, Horse Races, Cricket, and other games.

Here the most played and organized sport is football. People loved to watch and participate in competitions with their families and friends. This is how the day after Christmas became very popular for football games.

As English Premier League is the highest platform in the United Kingdom, it also organizes sports to entertain people there. This is how boxing has become a day for a family get-together. They attend the game, choose a team and extend the happiness of Christmas.

Where and When the Boxing Day Celebrated?

Boxing day is not just a traditional British day. It is also celebrated in Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and many Commonwealth countries, especially Canada and Australia. In these countries, this day is a national holiday. Besides, this boxing day is a bank holiday for workers and students in Nigeria. In New Zealand, this day is a statutory holiday.

On this day, people who must work get 1 and 1⁄2 times their salaries. Notably, in Singapore, boxing day was also a national holiday. However, it is changed for some reasons, and now this day is no longer a holiday.

Like every year, Boxing day 2023 will be on 26th December, and there are many interesting events on that day. In the last season, there were many significant matches between Manchester City, Chelsea, and Manchester United. In this season, there will surely be much more competition arrangements to entertain people.

Conclusion:

In a nutshell, boxing day is a festival celebrated just after the Christmas in which different football competitions are conducted to entertain people and extend the happiness of Christmas. Notably, this day is pervasively linked with the English Premier League.

The exact date of this day is 26th December every year. Well, that’s all about the boxing day in the English Premier League. Hopefully, you have understood this one of the most confusing holidays on the English calendar. Then again, if you have any other things to know about this day, let us know in the comment section. Happy Holidays.

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