I have recently been receiving emails and text messages announcing that today will be, and indeed now is, Black Friday.
I know what Good Friday is but what on earth is Black Friday?
Where did the idea come from?
I guess that like most things it came from America.
Apparently the name originated from the fact that most retailers operate in the red for most of the year and only begin to see profits during the Christmas shopping period.
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the start of the Christmas shopping period and the point at which for retailers red turns to black.
It is also a day when bargains are announced, shops open early and the rush to spend money overcomes common sense.
According to my newspaper one shopper interviewed leaving a store with a new vacuum cleaner commented that she had really wanted a TV but they had sold and as she had to have something she bought the vacuum cleaner, she didn't need it, but it was heavily discounted.
I guess when she gets it home she will switch it on only to be disappointed that there are no pictures just a loud humming noise.
Another entrepreneurial shopper with a number of TV's in a shopping trolley was seen offering them for sale along the queue outside the store.
Cost me £250, yours for £350, £300 for cash.
Of course the British don't celebrate thanksgiving, after all what America celebrates is independence ............. From us!
So not a lot to celebrate!
But inevitably what America does today will in time find its way over here so who knows maybe in a year or two we will start celebrating thanksgiving by deep frying a turkey in an oil drum?
Of course we won't know what we are celebrating but, hey! Any excuse for a party?
Maybe if UKIP has its way with Mr Cameron, or the Tories outflank him and Britain is persuaded to leave the EEC or Brexit's as the newspaper headlines have it, then we could make the Thursday before Black Friday, Thanksgiving,
Free, Free at last!
Of course it may be that leaving Europe plunges us into economic uncertainty, that European Markets collapse, business abandons the UK to headquarter in Europe and we experience financial meltdown, in which case we may not be so thankful after all and as the pound in our pocket shrinks, we may not have much to spend on Black Friday.
Indeed if retailers rely on it to kick start their profit surge then those without money to spend on TV's and vacuum cleaners might find that Black Friday rapidly becomes Red Friday when the credit card statements arrive.
Apparently church attendance on Sunday continues to decline although Cathedrals report increasing numbers attending mid week services. That is certainly true in Carlisle where I occasionally celebrate a mid week communion service.
It is interesting to see how the regular faces are joined by a group of those who attend because they are in town or just visiting the Cathedral and often by a larger group who stand outside the circle and observe, as though they were witnessing some strange arcane ceremony that they vaguely recall having heard about.
Which of course they are.
Of course attendances pick up at Easter and at Christmas.
Both are times of the year when not only do people need to shop, for chocolate eggs, for special celebratory meals and for presents, but they are times of the year when the shop's close for the religious holidays. As my old prayer book suggests these were Red Letter Days in the Churches year and in the Calendar the dates were often highlighted in Red to illustrate that these days were indeed high and holy.
So arcane rituals involving bread and wine recalling the beliefs and worship of previous generations change over time and are replaced by other arcane rituals, Good Friday becomes Black Friday and Red Letter days are announced monthly by the arrival of the credit card statement
I know what Good Friday is but what on earth is Black Friday?
Where did the idea come from?
I guess that like most things it came from America.
Apparently the name originated from the fact that most retailers operate in the red for most of the year and only begin to see profits during the Christmas shopping period.
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the start of the Christmas shopping period and the point at which for retailers red turns to black.
It is also a day when bargains are announced, shops open early and the rush to spend money overcomes common sense.
According to my newspaper one shopper interviewed leaving a store with a new vacuum cleaner commented that she had really wanted a TV but they had sold and as she had to have something she bought the vacuum cleaner, she didn't need it, but it was heavily discounted.
I guess when she gets it home she will switch it on only to be disappointed that there are no pictures just a loud humming noise.
Another entrepreneurial shopper with a number of TV's in a shopping trolley was seen offering them for sale along the queue outside the store.
Cost me £250, yours for £350, £300 for cash.
Of course the British don't celebrate thanksgiving, after all what America celebrates is independence ............. From us!
So not a lot to celebrate!
But inevitably what America does today will in time find its way over here so who knows maybe in a year or two we will start celebrating thanksgiving by deep frying a turkey in an oil drum?
Of course we won't know what we are celebrating but, hey! Any excuse for a party?
Maybe if UKIP has its way with Mr Cameron, or the Tories outflank him and Britain is persuaded to leave the EEC or Brexit's as the newspaper headlines have it, then we could make the Thursday before Black Friday, Thanksgiving,
Free, Free at last!
Of course it may be that leaving Europe plunges us into economic uncertainty, that European Markets collapse, business abandons the UK to headquarter in Europe and we experience financial meltdown, in which case we may not be so thankful after all and as the pound in our pocket shrinks, we may not have much to spend on Black Friday.
Indeed if retailers rely on it to kick start their profit surge then those without money to spend on TV's and vacuum cleaners might find that Black Friday rapidly becomes Red Friday when the credit card statements arrive.
Apparently church attendance on Sunday continues to decline although Cathedrals report increasing numbers attending mid week services. That is certainly true in Carlisle where I occasionally celebrate a mid week communion service.
It is interesting to see how the regular faces are joined by a group of those who attend because they are in town or just visiting the Cathedral and often by a larger group who stand outside the circle and observe, as though they were witnessing some strange arcane ceremony that they vaguely recall having heard about.
Which of course they are.
Of course attendances pick up at Easter and at Christmas.
Both are times of the year when not only do people need to shop, for chocolate eggs, for special celebratory meals and for presents, but they are times of the year when the shop's close for the religious holidays. As my old prayer book suggests these were Red Letter Days in the Churches year and in the Calendar the dates were often highlighted in Red to illustrate that these days were indeed high and holy.
So arcane rituals involving bread and wine recalling the beliefs and worship of previous generations change over time and are replaced by other arcane rituals, Good Friday becomes Black Friday and Red Letter days are announced monthly by the arrival of the credit card statement
No comments:
Post a Comment