Black Friday
Why were the kids going to school the day after Thanksgiving?
Felt like a British filmmaker who doesn't understand American holidays.
There's no such day as "Black Friday." You used the proper term in your question, which is the day after Thanksgiving.
"Black Friday" is industry jargon which originated with the American department stores. It comes from the old accounting term "in the black," meaning turning a profit. At one time accountants using ledger books would enter losses in red ink and profits in black ink. Because the After-Thanksgiving Sales (also the proper term) were highly profitable, the retailers would refer to the day as black (profit) Friday. So basically it means "Money Friday," which is not what the holiday season is about. The media got wind of the term sometime in the 1990s and it began to spread to public usage. The retailers and the ad industry now had a new buzzword with which to dupe the general public.
The holiday season is a time to take a break from the daily grind, not a time to shove and trample one another over some shoddy imported material goods. The retailers have come up with the biggest scam by offering these "sales" which are nothing but discounts on jacked-up prices. There are far better sales being conducted all throughout the remainder of the year. Yet the public continues to fall for this ruse every November.
The term "Black Friday" needs to be removed from the lexicon. It's a shame a holiday weekend continues to be ruined by greed and materialism.
We need to save the holiday season.
>disputes "Black Friday" as a recognized holiday
>outlines in detail how it actually is
Hoisted by your own petard.
I don't get your comment. Thanksgiving Day is a recognized U.S. holiday, but the day after isn't. A lot of employers do offer the following day as an off-day rather than have workers come back just for Friday and then be off again on the weekend.
The details I outlined have nothing to do with the holiday, which is about giving thanks, having a nice dinner and taking some time off.
It doesn't matter if it was spawned by mercantile jargon, Black Friday is recognized by North Americans as a holiday. Your essay against it means nothing. It is a day. Hit the streets and take a survey.
It does not destroy the adjacent holiday. FFS. Most people don't even shop on that day. They enjoy the time off.
It was never called that in the past, at least not by the public. There was Thanksgiving Day and the following day was called the day after Thanksgiving. The stores conducted After-Thanksgiving Sales because a lot of people had that Friday off.
It was sometime around the mid-1990s when the term began to creep into the lexicon, thanks to the media. Then the retailers began stepping up the ad campaigns to make it sound like this was a once-a-year must-attend event to end all events. They discounted the prices after they had been jacked up and conned the public into thinking this was the greatest sale of the year. It wasn't, but the general public still can't seem to comprehend that.
It has become even worse now with ads for this rubbish being run as early as October. Once Halloween ends then the barrage of commercials explodes. You can't even watch a hockey game without hearing about this nonsense. Even the auto dealers use the term in their November "sales events."
You said, "It does not destroy the adjacent holiday. FFS. Most people don't even shop on that day. They enjoy the time off."
Then why are stores now open on Thanksgiving Day? It was Macy's that started this movement back in 2013 and naturally the other retailers had to jump on the bandwagon.
Sorry, it's not a holiday. An event, possibly, but not a holiday. It's greed, materialism and crass consumerism. Go to YouTube and search the term and witness for yourself the despicable, animalistic behavior that takes place in those stores on the day after Thanksgiving. You call that a holiday?
People consider it a holiday because we all get the day off aaaaand ...
"It was sometime around the mid-1990s when the term began to creep into the lexicon, thanks to the media. Then the retailers began stepping up the ad campaigns to make it sound like this was a once-a-year must-attend event to end all events. They discounted the prices after they had been jacked up and conned the public into thinking this was the greatest sale of the year. It wasn't, but the general public still can't seem to comprehend that."
Everyone knows the name of this day off.
BTW, working on Thanksgiving is fine. Would you make it mandatory for people to not work that day?
holiday: a day on which one is exempt from work;
specifically, a day marked by a general suspension of work in commemoration of an event
merriam-webster.com/dictionary
Thanksgiving Day is a holiday, not a day for work unless it's a vital service like a hospital or fire department. And these organizations usually schedule workers on a rotating basis to try to give as many as possible the holiday off and make things more fair. It's not a day for stores to be open. Any non-essential business should be closed on holidays, as was always done in the past.
Thanksgiving Day is a commemoration of an event: a harvest festival from the 1620s. The day after commemorates nothing.
The day after Thanksgiving should be primarily considered a day off and part of a long weekend, not an opportunity to act like animals at some store. For many people this is a paid off-day, so you'd think they would be happy to take it. How often do we get a paid four-day weekend?
Some people just don't appreciate anything.
"Everyone knows the name of this day off." Yes, it's called the "day after Thanksgiving" and it's part of the "Thanksgiving weekend."
I don't condone the wild behavior of retail savages.
I find your "mandatory business closure" to be unsettling. I'll take freedom, thanks. May your totalitarian visions find no fertile soil.
How do you feel about Valentines day? What about Labor Day?
"Totalitarian visions... ??" What..?? If I were a "totalitarian" I would be in favor of abolishing all holidays and turning the year into a 365-day workweek.
I'm not concerned about minor holidays like Valentine's Day. I'm talking about the big holidays like New Year's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Not so long ago, these days meant businesses were closed. Were these closures "mandated"? I highly doubt it. There was simply more respect for traditions and more of a rhythm to life. There were workdays and then there were off-days and holidays.
We need some balance in our lives.
Get your facts in order. Black Friday has been around a lot longer than the 90's I worked in a Sears in college during the 80's and Black Friday existed back then we even got paid extra because it was considered a holiday so if you were scheduled to work that Friday you got extra pay. It was never any secrete phrase either. Nothing worse than someone babbling on like some know it all when they are just flat out wrong.
shareYou are correct; there have been these sales for decades, but they were called "After-Thanksgiving Sales," as seen in this ad:
https://coupons.hunt4freebies.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/After-Thanksgiving-2-Day-Sale.jpg
You worked for Sears, so you would have heard the term most likely from the corporate office. It wasn't a "secret phrase" but it was insider jargon.
And I believe you when you say you earned extra pay. I had a restaurant job that paid extra on Mother's Day because the place was so busy with families taking their moms out for dinner.
Things have simply become worse within the past couple of decades. At one time the word "Thanksgiving" evoked images of a nice dinner and a four-day weekend. Now "Thanksgiving" gets little mention as all the focus is on the day after. The minute Halloween ends we are bombarded with a constant stream of ads for these sales. It's all about money and materialism, not about giving thanks or taking a much-needed break from the daily grind. We need these occasional breaks and a special time of year to look forward to, and this is disappearing. No wonder there is such a foul mood in this country these days, and yes, it started before the pandemic.
I only agree with you about the general loss of celebration of Thanksgiving itself. Kids are taught to hate Columbus and the settlers now. Few take the occasion to be thankful and count their blessings. However, if people want to go about buying things they want/need or if they need/desire to work then they should absolutely be allowed. A day off is a holiday. A ritual day off that people start calling a name is no less a holiday. Your rage over the semantics is born of your nostalgia.
sharePeople have all year long to "buy things." There's no reason why we can't have two or three days each year set aside for holidays. Having a special time of the year like the holiday season gives people something to look forward to. This constant running in high gear 24/7/365 isn't healthy.
"Your rage over the semantics is born of your nostalgia."
Thank you, Doctor Freud.
People can look forward to the holiday without your lockdown edict. Freedom means that you can choose high gear if you want. How does this freedom effect you? Can't you sit at home with a nice cup of coco and watch the Cowboys while pretending that no one out there is doing what they want? Just pretend it is like the old days and don't impose your practice preferences on others.
shareIt's not a "lockdown edict." There's nothing wrong with family members visiting one another.
How can anyone ignore it when we're constantly bombarded with this garbage all throughout the month of November? The minute Halloween ends the barrage begins. TV, radio, the Internet, spam e-mails, pop-up ads, print ads sent through the mail... the list is endless. A football game? You can't even watch sports without hearing about it. Thanksgiving Day is rarely mentioned, unless it's an ad for a supermarket that has turkeys on sale.
A person would need to totally unplug to avoid this rubbish.
And I'm not "imposing" anything. It's just two or three days out of a 365-day year.
I'm on the same page as regards the bombardment and the downplaying of Thanksgiving.
So do you or don't you want businesses to be forced to shut down on those two or three days?
They should be closed. Not by force; it should be something a person would naturally want to do. I don't know what's wrong with people these days that they are so willing to pass up a chance to have a paid day off.
sharePeople get bored easily. Even in the days of closed shops on Christmas, people would flock to movie theaters. Everyone is sitting around with full bellies and get tired of staring at each other and taking naps so they head to the movies.
Then there are the people who need the work and can't pass up the double time pay.
Then there are those who have no lack of days off and the holidays are special for reasons entirely different than the break they provide.
I appreciate a desire for people to tune in to what the holidays mean. That is a separate subject than claiming that a commonly known name for a day off is somehow not valid because of a dislike for the practice of the day.
I couldn't imagine going to a movie on Christmas Day.
"Then there are the people who need the work and can't pass up the double time pay.'
If we've come to a point where people are forced to choose between working and having a holiday, then something is severely wrong with our society.
"I appreciate a desire for people to tune in to what the holidays mean. That is a separate subject than claiming that a commonly known name for a day off is somehow not valid because of a dislike for the practice of the day."
That's my whole point. It's not a separate issue. When people refer to the Thanksgiving weekend by that other term, they are shifting the emphasis from a time to give thanks and take a break to a focus on crass consumerism, greed and materialism, with its accompanying animalistic behavior in the stores. The meaning of the holiday gets swept under a rug.
"we've come to a point where people are forced to choose between working and having a holiday"
So you want to take the choice away? What if someone disagrees with you and wants to work?