Friday 28 November 2014

"Black Friday"

I wish that the American bishops would declare a day of fasting, abstinence and penance on this "Black Friday" (which has arrived in Britain out of nowhere this year), in the hope that that, too, would be slavishly imitated over here.

The Nativity Fast starts today, making it a day of strict fasting for the Russian Orthodox. Good for them.

The supermarket chains claim that one in six people in Britain now keeps Thanksgiving. Utter bilge, of course.

It is kept only by expatriate Americans and by the members of their households, a tiny proportion of the population.

The major Jewish, Islamic, Hindu and Sikh festivals are all bigger, and they are all small minority interests.

But our commercial overlords obviously see both Thanksgiving and Black Friday as enormous opportunities, to be made part of the cultural mainstream by the old trick of pretending that they already are, so as to make everyone else feel abnormal and as if we were missing out.

I honestly do not think that half of these corporations even know that Thanksgiving and Black Friday do not, or at least did not, exist outside the United States.

They keep them without even thinking about it, and such is their power that, as a result, those days do now exist in more and more of the world.

Within 10 years, and possibly five, the media will refer to them as "traditional", and the run-up to Thanksgiving will see it taught as such in primary schools.

But the world turns. Which Chinese festivals will we all be keeping another 10 years again after that?

Right now, I would make all four of St George's Day, St Andrew's Day, St David's Day and St Patrick's Day public holidays throughout the United Kingdom, rather than pointless celebrations of the mere fact that the banks are on holiday.

Three of those are in these Islands' incomparable spring and early summer, while the fourth, being 30th November, would mark the last day on which nothing, absolutely nothing, Christmas-related would be allowed.

5 comments:

  1. One major thing in favour of Thanksgiving is that it is secular and therefore completely inclusive. It celebrates family life and encourages people to get together with their loved ones at least once a year to celebrate their kinship.

    Contrast that with religious festivals which are, by their very nature, exclusive and even hostile to people who do not share that particular faith.

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    1. The Americans thinks that Thanksgiving is religious, while the British think that Christmas isn't.

      It says it all that we have adopted Black Friday before we have adopted Thanksgiving.

      In the same way, the excesses of the Premier League would never be tolerated in the NFL, with its pay caps, its welfare provisions, and its Lord's Prayer and National Anthem before the start of play.

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  2. There's only one David Lindsay. Brilliant.

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  3. Your ex-housemate Dr. Tom Hamilton also called it "bilge" on Twitter that a sixth of people in Britain now kept Thanksgiving.

    Good news, because as you know he is Head of Research for the Labour Party and doubtless on course for a seat once it all reverts to the NEC after Christmas, too close to the election for a selection procedure.

    New Labour would have loved this but New Labour is the past. The true number of people keeping this thing over here is the true number of people who believe in the American hegemony with the "Anglosphere" under it that the whole thing celebrates.

    If the "Anglosphere" was real, we would all keep Thanksgiving to celebrate the leader of our civilisation, the American Republic. We would all keep the 4th of July too. It isn't, we don't.

    Interesting you mention far greater popularity here of minority religious holidays, but still most people don't keep them. The "Anglosphere" people keeping the American holidays are adherents of another minority religion, but one with nearly no followers in Britain.

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