Happy Feast of St. Stephen!

Today is known as “Boxing Day” in Great Britain, because it is the one day of the year when sewer workers ask the public to place their leftover fat drippings in a box, instead of drizzling them into the kitchen sink or flushing them down the loo.

In Wales, 26 December is observed as “Gŵyl San Steffan,” which celebrates St. Stephen in his traditional role as an itinerant missionary from the Eastern Orthodox Church who converted the Celts to Socialized Medicine and drove the vowels out of Western England.

In the New Testament’s Book of Acts, Stephen is portrayed as the first Prophet of Christ with a Waspy name to be stoned to death by the Jews—which seems pretty much par for the course these days, but was actually rather a novelty in its time.

I apologize for any lapses or ellipses in my description of this venerable British holiday, but this post is my half-assed Christmas present to co-blogger YAFB, and any errors or omissions should be credited to another uniquely Anglo tradition—the “Drop o’ the Craythur”—which is both my Best Friend and my Everlasting Ruin.

Posted by StrangeAppar8us on 12/26/10 at 01:11 PM • Permalink

On the subject of the craythur, a number of years ago we left our cat in the tender care of a neighbor over Christmas while we visited my mum in Wales. Looking for a thank you gift down there, I found what I thought was an entirely appropriate token for a Scotsman from a Welshman, some chwisgi.

It’s the only time I’ve ever presented a Scot with a bottle of spirit where he’s sipped one dram and immediately offered the whole bottle back to me. After sampling it, I could fully understand why. There are some things the Welsh do well. That isn’t one of them. Luckily, I paid a lot less than £45 for it. Nasty.

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