) ( ( ) Good Morning Family! ( \ .-.,--^--. ( Come on in. . . \* ) \\|`----'| - The coffee pot's on. . . .=|=. \| |// ...and we even have decaf, |~'~| | |/ tea, and hot chocolate! | | \ / _|___|_ ------ (_______) Today's topics include: 1. Welcome to new cousins 2. Boxing Day 3. Kwanzaa 4. New Year's Traditions (in part 2) TO OUR NEWEST COUSINS ~~ On behalf of the entire family, I'd like to extend a most hearty welcome to those cousins who came into the family fold this past week. We are very glad to have you with us and hope you'll stay and remain a part of our online family. As soon as you're comfortable with us and the list, please send in your Bower[s]/Bauer, Baur or Bowra lines so we can all see how we're related to you. We do not have a fancy format for sending in records or queries to the list. Post as many as you wish! If the data has anything to do with Bower[s]/Bauer, Baur or Bowra ancestors or any of the 81+ variant spellings we research that might help someone, please feel free to post it. Every scrap of information is appreciated. If you haven't visited the homesite of this list yet, you are encouraged to do so. Our home is Bower Community, located at <http://bowercommunity.com>. There, we currently have two sites: The Bower Family Homestead [a.k.a., the Homestead] is our primary homesite and the gathering place for much of our information. It waits to join us all in welcoming you into the family at <http://bowercommunity.com/homestead>. Smaller is our sister site, the Bower Cottage, which houses most of our projects including an online GEDCOM fed by cousins from our research groups. Find the Cottage is at <http://bowercommunity.com/cottage>. BOXING DAY December 26th, Boxing Day. Boxing Day??? Have you even heard of it before now? Does the name of this British holiday make you think of people doing something with boxes ~ ridding their homes of an excess of wrappings and mountains of now useless cardboard boxes the day after St. Nick arrived to turn a perfectly charming and orderly home into a maelstrom of discarded tissue paper? Possibly the masses are returning unwanted gifts to the stores they came from, hence its common association with hauling about boxes on the day after Christmas? Or maybe they're engaging in the pugilistic sport? Nope, sorry. You're wrong on all counts. Not many people in the world realize that there's even such a thing as Boxing Day, let alone the reason for a legal holiday so named. But, you should also know that even though Boxing Day is celebrated in Australia, Britain, New Zealand, and Canada, not all that many in those countries have much of a notion as to why they get December 26th off. It just isn't a well understood holiday. Only in the last century has it become a holiday. I might also mention here that some celebrate it on the first weekday following Christmas. So, if Christmas falls on Friday or Saturday Boxing Day would be on Monday. Let's shed a little bit of light on this day... Boxing Day's roots can be traced to Britain, where it's also known as St. Stephen's Day. (Saint Stephen was a little known saint who achieved eternal fame by being the first Christian to be martyred for his faith, and he met his death by stoning.) Servants were required to work on Christmas. They were responsible for making the holiday run smoothly for wealthy landowners. They were allowed to take leave on December 26th and visit their families. The employers gave each servant a box containing gifts and bonuses. Gifts among equals were exchanged on or before Christmas Day, but those less fortunate received them the day after. In addition, around the 800's churches opened their alms boxes (boxes where people place monetary donations) and distributed the contents to poor. How the name 'Boxing Day' came about is still disputed. The holiday may date from the Middle Ages (A.D. 400's-1500's), but the exact origin is unknown. Following are the several theories: Some say the tradition stems from Roman times when money to pay for athletic games was collected in boxes. Amongst the ruins of Pompeii, boxes made out of earthenware with slits in the top full of coins have been found. Later the Romans brought the idea of collecting boxes to Britain, and monks and clergy soon used similar boxes to collect money for the poor at Christmas. On the day after Christmas, the priests used to open the boxes and distribute the contents to the poor of the village. The contents of this alms box originated with the ordinary folks in the parish who were thus under no direct obligation to provide anything at all and were certainly not tied to the recipients by a employer/employee relationship. In this case, the "box" in "Boxing Day" comes from that one gigantic lock box the donations were left in. Centuries ago, ordinary members of the merchant class gave boxes of food and fruit to tradespeople and servants the day after Christmas in an ancient form of Yuletide tip. These gifts were an expression of gratitude to those who worked for them, in much the same way that one now tips the paperboy an extra $20 at Christmastime or slips the building's superintendent a bottle of fine whisky. Those long-ago gifts were done up in boxes, hence the day coming to be known as "Boxing Day." Christmas celebrations in the old days entailed bringing everyone together from all over a large estate, thus creating one of the rare instances when everyone could be found in one place at one time. This gathering of his extended family, so to speak, presented the lord of the manor with a ready-made opportunity to easily hand out that year's stipend of necessities. Thus, the day after Christmas, after all the partying was over and it was almost time to go back to far-flung homesteads, serfs were presented with their annual allotment of practical goods. Who got what was determined by the status of the worker and his relative family size, with spun cloth, leather goods, durable food supplies, tools, and whatnot being handed out. Under this explanation, there was nothing voluntary about this transaction; the lord of the manor was obligated to supply these goods. The items were chucked into boxes, one box for each family, to make carrying away the results of this annual restocking easier. Thus, the day came to be known as "Boxing Day." Many years ago, on the day after Christmas, servants in Britain carried boxes to their masters when they arrived for the day's work. It was a tradition that on this day all employers would put coins in the boxes, as a special end-of-the-year gift. In a closely related version of this explanation, apprentices and servants would on that day get to smash open small earthenware boxes left for them by their masters. These boxes would house small sums of money specifically left for them. This dual-versioned theory melds the two previous ones together into a new form; namely, the employer who was obligated to hand out something on Boxing Day, but this time to recipients who were not working the land for him and thus were not dependent on him for all they wore and ate. The "box" thus becomes something beyond ordinary compensation (in a way goods to landed serfs was not), yet it's also not a gift in that there's nothing voluntary about it. By this theory, the boxes are an early form of Christmas bonus, something employees see as their entitlement. Whichever theory you choose to accept, the one thread common to all is the theme of one-way provision to those not inhabiting the same social level. As mentioned previously, equals exchanged gifts on Christmas Day or before, but lessers (be they tradespeople, employees, servants, serfs, or the generic "poor") received their "boxes" on the day after. Note that the social superiors did not receive anything back from those they gave to. A gift in return would have been seen as a presumptuous act of laying claim to equality, the very thing Boxing Day was an entrenched bastion against. Boxing Day was, after all, about preserving class lines. Today, Boxing Day is celebrated much differently. In England, the holiday has evolved into a celebration of the family. Few people have servants but the custom of giving gifts or money to those who provide service continues. Since Christmas Day is spent at home with your family, Boxing Day is the day spent visiting grandparents. It is also popular to shop (the after Christmas discounts begin). Since World War II, there's always some sports event happening. It's considered a day of people getting out and doing things, hence Boxing Day became associated with horse-racing (St. Stephen is the patron saint of horses) and hunting, soccer and rugby. The day is celebrated with creamed teas, high teas and more. KWANZAA December 26th also starts a second holiday. Kwanzaa, an African-American festive, non-religious holiday observed by African communities throughout the world celebrates family, community, and culture. It is a seven day celebration that continues through January 1. Derived from the Swahili phrase "matunda ya kwanza" which means "first fruits," Kwanzaa is rooted in the ancient first harvest celebrations practiced in various cultures in Africa. However, its modern history begins in 1966 when it was developed by African-American scholar and activist Maulana Karenga. Kwanzaa is organized around five fundamental activities common to other African first-fruit celebrations: (1) the gathering of family, friends, and community; (2) reverence for the creator and creation (including thanksgiving and recommitment to respect the environment and heal the world); (3) commemoration of the past (honoring ancestors, learning lessons and emulating achievements of African history); (4) recommitment to the highest cultural ideals of the African community (for example, truth, justice, respect for people and nature, care for the vulnerable, and respect for elders); and (5) celebration of the "Good of Life" (for example, life, struggle, achievement, family, community, and culture). Africans and African-Americans of all religious faiths and backgrounds practice Kwanzaa. Kwanzaa is celebrated through rituals, dialogue, narratives, poetry, dancing, singing, drumming and other music, and feasting. A central practice is the lighting of the seven candles of Kwanzaa. One candle is lit each day for each of the Seven Principles. These principles are unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith. Gifts are exchanged. On 31 December participants celebrate with a banquet of food ~ often cuisine from various African countries. Participants greet one another with "Habari gani" which is Kiswahili for "How are you?" ~~CONTINUED~~