Traditionally, Boxing Day—the first working day after Christmas—is a day when folks celebrate by giving service workers presents—Christmas boxes, as they’re known in the Commonwealth.

Now that we’ve cleared up any impression that the Boxing in Boxing Day has any relationship whatsoever to pugilism, we’ll carry on with a look at the linguistic form of that term boxing.

We were punning a bit there; in the lingo of linguistic forms, boxing is known as a gerund, the term for a verbal noun whose Latin ancestor translates roughly as "to carry on." (来源：英语论坛 http://bbs.englishcn.com)

How can a person identify a gerund? For starters, it ends in I-N-G. But be careful not to be fooled by other I-N-G words. For example, in addition to being a gerund, the word boxing also represents the present (or imperfect) participle of the verb box. But the syntax—the way the linguistic elements are put together—of these two identically spelled words differs. Compare the place of boxing in these two sentences: Like his father before him, he is boxing his way to a Golden Gloves championship; and The doctor warned continual boxing would prove harmful to the boy’s body. (来源：EnglishCN英语问答中心[e问e答])