Thanksgiving, the boring day before Black Friday ...Christmas Day? Thats just blah blah before the Boxing Day sales!

Why...

Has a public holiday become simply just the day before a sale? Putting aside any religious connotation, it's a wondrous idea that all nations have certain days during the year that are set aside to unwind with friends and family. However I challenge anyone to give me an example when a national holiday nowadays is not followed by a sale. OK maybe not April 15th in North Korea which is Day of the Sun (Birthday of Kim Il Sung)....I dunno' though?....I could be wrong. Maybe you can get a deal on a nice set of finger nail extractors....I mean nail clippers....at ten potatoes off list price. (You never know who is reading this stuff. Ask a Sony)! Whilst Labor Day or Memorial Day are not inextricably linked to buying, Christmas is. Spending the whole month of December wracking my brains at what to buy Auntie Incontinent or Uncle Halitosis (or more likely did I give them the same thing last year) do I really want the day after giving and receiving all this detritus to put my brain into buy mode again? A cracking good example as to how easily we lap up special days to spend money on was my blog about card companies making up superfluous celebration days http://andanotherthin.wpengine.com/beware-card-shark/#andanotherthing.

...and another thing

I understand that for my colonial cousins Thanksgiving is the starting gun for what they now euphemistically call the Holiday Season but Black Friday is an invention that we have swallowed hook line and sinker (…along with a fishing rod and reel, 75% off)!

Everyone likes a bargain but Black Friday is a contact sport. The idea of a knee in the nuts or an elbow in my ear just to save a few bucks on a Whizzo electric grape peeler seems a monster waste of time. I’d much rather watch another contact sport, American Football.

Thanksgiving did not actually have a fixed month let alone day before good Ole Abe Lincoln picked the fourth Thursday on November 26, 1863 to also give thanks for victory at Gettysburg. One of the very few goofs from the great man was to forget that in November there are sometimes five Thursdays. To be fair he didn’t draft the proclamation, Secretary of State Sward did.

Then another great, FDR wanted the third Thursday and got roundly booed. So that was that. If there are five Thursdays the reason no one wants the last one……is because it shortens the amount of time for Christmas shopping by a week!

The fact is most of the holiday celebrations in the West have just become a buffer before some consumer frenzy. Our values have become lower than a limbo dancer’s pole.

...and another thing

I can assure you the two things you will not be thinking as you lie on your death bed with more tubes coming out of you than a water theme park are:

I wish I had spent more time in the office?

or

Why did I not go to more sales events?

In fact it would be pretty horrifying to realise the time wasted in utterly pointless pursuits. Sitting in traffic jams, commuting, watching the tumble dryer or reading inane blogs. Sure as hell probably adds up to five years. Now time is a bargain I would fight for. Sadly it ain’t on sale.

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