The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-12-26
Many Quaint Customs Are
 Connected With Boxing Day

Tn the calendar of the church today is the festival of St. stephen, the Proto martyr As the first of the myriad martyrs of Christianity, Stephen was accorded the honor of having hts day placed in ethe calendar Immediately following the Natavity. Tn England the day has been mark ed by many quaint customs, and 1t is still observed as ssBoxing-day," when gratuities are distributed among ser vantss clerks, 1aborers, and employees of all sorts. On the twenty-sixth of December all the claimants of Christmas boxes make their rounds, hence the popular designation of BoxfnE-day The observations of Boxing-day has died out in America, and those who serve their more for tunate fellows expect their gifts be- fore and not after Christmas.
 Every merchant in England is ex- pected to contribute to the Christmas boxes of the servants of his custom CTS, but it is likely that the.gratuittes this year, will be much smaller than in more prosperous and peaceful times. When the Boxing-day custom is not nearly so general as in past times it is still far from extinct.
 In. some sections of England St Stephens Day was observed by the practice of going a-Stephening,,s . but this ceremony, happily for the vic tfnas, is now all but forgotten The poor inhabitants of the parish made it point on this day to call at the rectory, where the rector was expect ed to provide. all the bread, cheese and ale they could consume. This gentle custom was usually productive of a drunken. orgy, for few of the men could resist the temptation to drinking the ale, so freely provided until they. were unable to hold an other drop This custom was finally aboIished early in the nineteenth cen tury.
 Another curious idea in connection with St. Stephens Day is that the first martyr is the special guardian of horses Owners of horses in Eng land long made it a practice to sub [ ject their animals to a copious blood i letting on this day. It was held that { this insured the animals against sick I ness and disease during the twelve month following. This custom is re- Iferred to in an old English poem: hen followeth St. Stephens Day, ghereon-gd oth every man
 ! His horses jaunt and course abrode
 swiftly as he can,
 Until they do extreen1ly sweate, and
 then they let them blood,
 1 For this being done upon this day. they say doth do them good, s. And keeps them from all ma1adfea ts and sickness through the yeare, l As if Stephen any time took charge of horses heare.''
 ] In Australia, the day following : Christmas has long been dedicated to athletic sports and pastimes. as this season is midsummer in the Anti podes. The Australian Boxing-day has a literal significance. for it is usually Ss-1naEkad sby.~ i'm portant boxing matches. It was on Boxing-day in s190ss at Sydney, that Jack Johnson { defeated Tommy Burns; the Canadian.
 The Hebrews of the world will be- : gin the observance at sundown to- night of the Fast of Tebet, which will be kept by orthodox adherents of 1 Judaism by abstaining from food and worldly pleasures. In. Ireland today is the festival of one of the early missionaries of ethe Christian faith in the Emerald Isle, St. Iar1ath, who lived in the sixth century, and who
 wass the first bisAep of Tuam