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Thanksgiving

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Many people mark Thanksgiving as the beginning of the winter holiday season. In fact, it is because Thanksgiving is the beginning of the holiday season (aka the holiday shopping season) that Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted to change the day we celebrate this holiday.

In 1939, FDR proposed that we celebrate Thanksgiving on the second to last Thursday of November. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln had proclaimed that Thanksgiving Day be celebrated nationally on the final Thursday of November.

FDR had good reason to want to change the date of Thanksgiving: because people recognize Thanksgiving as the beginning of the shopping season, FDR wanted to lengthen the shopping season by a week in hopes of helping the country come out of the Great Depression.

Of course, FDR did not make this change mandatory, and therefore only about half of the states accepted the change, and about half of the states did not. In the end, a sort of compromise was developed. In 1941, Congress decided that Thanksgiving would be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of every month, thereby allowing it to sometimes occur on the last Thursday of November, and sometimes on the second to last Thursday.

The day after Thanksgiving has been termed Black Friday, and it is one of the busiest retail shopping days of the year. Many retailers respond by opening early and having large sales to draw people in.

There is an anti-capitalist response to Black Friday known as Buy Nothing Day. Buy Nothing Day is not a widely participated event, but those who do participate refuse to give into consumerism on this busy shopping day. They often even go to malls and shopping areas to make shoppers aware of how the day after Thanksgiving seems to be founded on consumerism.

To participate in Buy Nothing Day, though, all you really need to do is refrain from purchasing anything for the 24 hours following Thanksgiving. Of course, you can purchase things following this day: you can be a consumer, still. The point of the day is to simply raise awareness about the wasteful consumption habits of countries like the United States. And what better day to celebrate Buy Nothing Day than on the busiest shopping day of the year?

Of course, other countries also celebrate Buy Nothing Day, even though they do not celebrate Thanksgiving at all (or if they do, they celebrate it on a different day.) Canada celebrates Buy Nothing Day on the day after the American Thanksgiving, just like Americans do, in attempt to coordinate the event. Other countries, on the other hand, often celebrate the day two days after the American Thanksgiving.

It is interesting, though, regardless of whether you celebrate the day after Thanksgiving by shopping or refusing to shop, to think of the difference between Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Thanksgiving is generally thought of a time to spend with your friends and family, enjoying each others company. And then the day after, Black Friday, is a day of crazed shopping and thinking of the American dollar and how far it can stretch.