Boxing Day / День Подарков (26 декабря)

Vocabulary
servant – слуга
shopkeeper – лавочник
to perform – выполнять
dustmen – мусорщик
a pantomime – пантомима
Cinderella – Золушка
to join in – присоединяться

Boxing day is a day after Christmas in England. For many years in Britain the day to give presents was December 26th and not Christmas Day as it is today.

In the old days, servants, shopkeepers and other people who performed a service for the rich used to come to their houses. They came a box and they were given presents and sometimes money. The custom still exists in a way with milkmen, postmen, newspaperboys and dustmen.

On each boxing day, a lot of English children are taken out to a pantomime or a circus. A pantomime is a kind of comedy based on a well-known fairy story or folk-tales such as “Cinderella”. The audience is often asked to join in and children love it. They sings popular songs. Of course, pantomimes have a happing ending.