Angels we have heard on high,
Tell us to go out and BUY. – Tom Lehrer, “A Christmas Carol”
Though I should be used to it by now, the ridiculously-early Christmas displays still come as a shock to me. The first one this year was at our local farm supply store, which was actually putting out Christmas merchandise (sans decoration) fully two weeks before Halloween. Because this particular establishment has no Halloween merchandise, I was irresistibly reminded of my own statement from last year’s “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year”: “were it not for Halloween’s growing popularity as an adult drinking holiday [Christmas displays] might have broken into October by now.” But all the non-farm-supply-venues didn’t wait much longer; the City of Seattle was putting up its decorations the Monday after I arrived, and I saw more than a few fully-decked houses from the train coming back into Chicago on the 21st. And who could forget this cheery holiday scene from Ferguson, Missouri this past Monday, courtesy of Reuters?
Actually, that’s an apt (if grim) metaphor for what Yuletide in the United States has become: a superficial show of holiday cheer and “goodwill to Man” draped over the ugliness of a fully-realized fascist state. Because my Outlook email filters don’t work on webmail, I was forced to hand-delete countless pieces of “Black Friday” spam while I was traveling, and some of them actually did what I’ve been grimly joking for years they soon would do: refer to Thanksgiving Day as “Black Friday Eve”. Words fail me.
Needless to say, I won’t be leaving my property today except perhaps to go to the mailbox. Instead, I plan to find and decorate a tree, work on my blog, enjoy leftovers from yesterday and perhaps call a few of my friends. Though I do indeed buy presents for those I love, that can wait for another day when the lemmings aren’t swarming quite so thickly (and dangerously). And you can bet I’ll do as much of it online as possible, so as to avoid as much of the fake festivity of the stores as I possibly can.
I expect it , but that doesn’t mean I have to accept it. I say celebrate the holidays in order and cut it with the invented days of black friday and cyber monday (I am NOT capitalizing them). Looking at you, too Guinness. May like your core product but the “great guinness toast” is just a way to spike sales and remind us you are owned by a shell company. Anyways, my rule is: Thanksgiving is for your extended family and friends, Christmas for personal family, i.e. couple in relationship and any kids yet to fly the coop. Relations make life worth living, not merchandizing.
Oh … every year you get like this! Don’t be such a “Grinch”!!! 🙂
Ain’t nothin’ you said there that ain’t true but …
If I walked around feeling like that I would have a chip on my shoulder and be melancholy all the time. Look for the magic in the shit that goes right.
Some stuff … you can’t do a thing in the world about except fret over. Why worry about things beyond your control? I try to live mostly in a “bubble” … “here’s the shit I can impact … that shit over there – I can’t do anything about – so forget it.”
By the way … here’s a new term for you … “Blackout Wednesday”. Who’d a thunk it? But the night before Thanksgiving is a SLAM NIGHT in the bars – at least here in NOLA. So many people in the bar Wednesday night it was hard to keep the place cool (and it’s freakin’ COLD outside here!).
But anyway … fuck the fascist state. Every breath I take … every deadlift I do in the gym … every pretty girl that smiles at me … I thank God (or whoever) for it. Won’t be here forever – and it’s a total fluke any of us are here at all when you think about it.
We’re all pretty lucky we got tickets to this show.
Enjoy life.
Oh, don’t worry; I’m enjoying it. But it’s in spite of the fascists, not because of ’em.
Black Friday has actually spread to other countries that do not celebrate Thanksgiving. I can understand Canadian stores having Black Friday (even though THEIR Thanksgiving is on or near Columbus Day.) But India?
If you visit the international Amazon.com web sites, many of them will advertize “Black Friday Week” sales, and some will actually use that phrase in English even when the rest of the site is in another language. (I don’t know if English is becoming what Latin was in the Middle Ages, but it seems to be replacing French in that English phrases will be used to make something sound “cool” even if the person hearing isn’t expected to be fluent in English.)
The German Amazon has drawn a line in the sand, though. They’re still offering the sales, but it’s “Cyber Monday” week instead, and the word for “week” is in German.
Yeah, it’s been catching on here in Canada over the years, regrettably. And you’re correct: our Thanksgiving coincides with Columbus Day, and the Christmas displays frequently start appearing that weekend in many retailers. People sometimes start putting up their personal decoration stuff around then, too, but that’s largely a defence against how early and hard winter can strike in some areas.
Canada has had for at least as long as I’ve been around a similar type of retail event, however: Boxing Day, which falls the 26th of December, and usually through to January 2 (+/-). Imagine the insanity of Black Friday within the dead of winter. Also something devoutly to be avoided.
Oh, lots of people come to the malls the day after Xmas to either exchange the gifts they didn’t want or spend the money they got for presents. We have exactly the same type of insanity here, and that insanity probably started here first.
The only difference is that we don’t call it “Boxing Day.”
As with your Thanksgiving Day, Boxing Day was originally never about the insanity of flash sales and door-crasher specials. And in Canada, Boxing Day is a statutory holiday (Wikipedia has a good accounting of the holiday). Until some time in the 80s across most of Canada, only “essential” stores/services were allowed even to be open on stats. And then exchanging/refunds/spending money is what started to happen, which ultimately led to the sales. Now, nearly all stores that are open forbid returns/exchanges for at least the first two or three days after Christmas because of the sale traffic.
Boxing Day (St Stephen’s Day) was once about “boxes” in the UK. Today, it’s when one half of the (distinctly hung-over) population go to the sales, and fight over the “amazing” bargains, while the other half (also distinctly hung-over) go off to watch football.
I’m not saying that we Americans should start putting more “u”‘s in our words, but considering that most of our military allies whom we at least try to stay friends with celebrate their “remembrance day” on 11 November, that’s where we Americans should move our Memorial Day where it will actually have a more solemn date. No matter how much patriots will whine about it on Facebook, the May weekend currently known as Memorial Day will be more known as a day for running to the beach. They can have the same festivities they do on that day for “Veterans Day” except that the former and current soldiers who are still living would be the center of attention.
Also, if even France uses poppies for memorial flowers, Americans should get over the “we’re different!” and do the same.
Funnily enough, the poppy as a memorial flower/symbol was an American invention (inspired by a Canadian) that the Commonwealth decided to run with…so it’s technically an American invention. 🙂
I wore mine on vacation in Hawaii at the beginning of the month, and the only comments/questions I got on it were from two different Australian tourist pairs.
This contagion has reached the UK, and become endemic here. And I’ve been inundated by emails from retailers inviting me to partake.
Quite coincidentally, I discovered today that there are “at least” 14 food banks in N Ireland—such food banks are widely recognised as symptomatic of the new austerity politics as practised by our coalition government.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-30239373
Now, please don’t think of me as a Guardian-reading-champagne-and-claret-quaffing-north-London-pseduointellectual-socialist-who-holidays-in-Chiantishire but I can really think of something more useful to do with the pennies I’d been saving for the spawns’ prezzies. (I can think of something else as well 🙂 )
“An eighty foot manger extends to the street,
With wise men and camels, the scene is complete,
A choir of angels is perched on a limb,
Beneath a loudspeaker that’s blaring a hymn.
Our roof features Santa, with reindeer and sleigh,
While two dozen floodlights light up the display,
Although it costs thousands, we’d spend even more,
Just so we’re outdoing our neighbors next door!”
Attributed to MAD magazine
Oh, I’ve seen someone refer to Thanksgiving Day as Black Thursday. I refuse to shop this weekend. Generally I stay away from malls on any weekend but definitely during the holidays.
As noted above, the idea of Black Friday has well and truly taken hold amongst retailers in the UK. I suspect the blame lies with Amazon for spreading the idea outside the US but no-one forced the local retailers to join in. Some of the pictures that made the MSM made me glad I a) refuse to be drawn in and b) do the vast majority of my non-food shopping online.
I couldn’t take any advantage of Black Friday* or Cyber Wednesday** even if I wanted to fight the crowds. My check comes in the first of the month, so I’m not going to be spending much the last weekend in November.
In Japan they’ve divided Valentine’s Day in two: girls give boys chocolate on the 14th of February, and boys give girls gifts on the 14th of March, which is called White Day for reasons I’ve forgotten. There’s even a male version of the song “Valentine Kiss” called (wait for it) “White Day Kiss.” Um, the implied yaoi gets a bit deep near the end of that second one, so if that sort of thing bothers you…
* Hey, I was going to capitalize days of the week anyway.
** See above footnote.