Clear your head, then start again

ST. STEPHEN'S DAY:  THE FIRST THING to note about St Stephen's Day is that, despite the pernicious influence of British culture, it is not and never shall be Boxing Day in Ireland. It is Boxing Day across several countries with commonwealth connections, including Canada and Australia. and among the theories for its name is that it refers to a tradition of putting gifts in a box and giving them to the servants. Because the Irish were often the servants, perhaps we took the boxes but decided not to keep the name.

Instead, we call it St Stephen's Day, named after an early Christian martyr who was accused of blasphemy and was stoned to death by a crowd egged on by another future saint, Paul. Stephen is patron saint of casket makers, Serbia, horses and - most apt for the day that's in it - headaches.

It is also Wren Day, when mummers and wrenboys dressed in colourful clothes hunt for a fake wren. It's still integral to the Stephen's Day festivities in some Irish towns, so has survived unlike the Welsh custom of beating late risers and female servants with holly branches.

There would be a lot of late risers on this day, obviously, when the combination of food, alcohol and food-soaked-in-alcohol will have wiped out even the fittest of people. The day itself seems to carry a bit of a hangover. The tree begins to look ever so slightly droopy and dated. At least one toy is already broken. People begin to go about their lives as normal, but more sluggishly than usual. It's understandable why so many people use the day to go walking on hills or beaches, or running in parks.

Traditionally, of course, three types of people work on St Stephen's Day: bar staff, shop assistants and Americans for whom the idea of taking even one day's holidays over Christmas is altogether too French for their liking.

The shop assistants used to be there to deal with the first of the sales, but even last year the sales were creeping earlier and earlier into December. This year, the Christmas sales seem to have begun some time in mid-August. Depending on how successful they were, of course, it may be that this year will mean a record number of Closing Down Sales.

The bar staff are kept busy because St Stephen's Day is one of only two days of the year in which the pubs must face gasping hordes who have had to go 24 hours without a pint that didn't come from a can. As we know from the British soaps, the pubs across the water are open on Christmas Day. Not so in Ireland, where we seem to appreciate a day of restraint and abstinence and then use Stephen's Day to forget all that nonsense and go on the lash.

So, for many it's a day for family and fresh air, rounded off with a bit of overindulgence. Christmas may not officially end for a further 10 days, but this really marks the last day. The tree will look doleful and out of place within a few days, but hopefully the kids will still be playing with the toys, the family will still be talking to one another and Dad's singed eyebrows will have regrown. It will be time to put it all behind us and plan for a new year. Only 362 shopping days until Christmas.