alms box

Before then, it is said, it was the time when the churches would open their alms boxes and distribute the contents to the needy of the community.

Another popular account claims alms boxes would be placed inside churches during Advent and opened on Boxing Day for distribution to the poor.

In the Middle Ages, parishioners would collect money for the poor in alms boxes.

The expression came about because money was collected in alms boxes placed in churches during the festive season.

It has been called that since the middle ages because of its connection to alms boxes.

This day is usually known as Boxing Day, after the tradition of opening the alms boxes placed in Churches over the Christmas season which were then distributed amongst the poorest parishioners.

The name goes back to medieval times when alms boxes at the back of churches would be opened and the contents distributed among the poor.

BOXING Day takes its name from money collected in alms boxes for the poor over the festive season.

round towers; but alms boxes, votive crosses, chained books, sanctuary rings ...?

THE breaking open of alms boxes to help the parish poor may not feature quite so highly on people's must-do list when there are a host of wacky events filling up the festive diary, but that has not always been the case.

It was the day the alms boxes (collections for the poor) were opened in churches and the contents given to the needy.

It was also practice that alms boxes in churches were opened and the contents distributed to the poor on this day, which happens to be St Stephen's Day.

The roots of the name Boxing Day date back to medieval times when money was collected in alms boxes. On St Stephen's Day (December 26) the collected money was distributed to the poor.

In the late 1940s,when I was a member of the cathedral staff, the late Maggie Roberts, the church cleaner, and I cornered a thief breaking into the cathedral alms boxes. He made his escape' ran to the Bangor railway station' caught a moving train to Holyhead' stowed himself away on a boat' and eventually arrived safely home in the Republic of Ireland.

It was started around 800 years ago, in the Middle Ages, when alms boxes - collections for the poor - were opened in parish churches so that the contents could be distributed.