page.xml contains:
<default translate="label" module="page">
<label>All Pages</label>
<reference name="root">
<action method="addBodyClass"><className>testing</className></action>
</reference>
Yet it’s not appearing in my html. And my html does have embed code.
<body<?php echo $this->getBodyClass()?' class="'.$this->getBodyClass().'"':'' ?>>
There might be another layout file that is executing after page.xml and is overriding your changes, placing them on local.xml as it’s the one called last should make your changes appear.
If not let me know.