December 26, 2010

Second Day of Christmas

Whether it’s 2 Juledag in Denmark or Svatek Vanocni 2 in the Czech Republic, many people around the world continue the Christmas holiday on the following day. In the Netherlands, many couples spend the day with the husband’s family, say, if they spent Christmas Day with the wife’s family, and vice versa. In some countries, people who had to work on Christmas Day, such as servants, get the next day off as their Christmas holiday. (This is commonly called Boxing Day.) Some people celebrate this day as Saint Stephen’s Day by distributing aid to those in need—things that St. Stephen was reputed to do during his life. (“The Feast of Stephen” is mentioned in the Christmas Carol “Good King Winceslas.”)

For more on Boxing Day, see last year’s post.

By the way, when you hear “the second day of Christmas,” you may think of the famous song “The Twelve Days of Christmas”:

On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…

Two turtledoves and a partridge in a pear tree.

Many people have come up with clever new versions of the lyrics. Try writing the entire song with the same rhythm and rhyming scheme, but all new gifts. It’s fun!

To inspire you, here is a Shrek version. (For fun, try to find all the typos in the lyrics. There are a lot of them!)

This You Tube video has not so much a parody of the song, but a great mash-up. Try it!