Above photographs by Corey Amaro
Chelsea informed me that she was going to do "Black Friday" with my sister in law Diane. In the course of the conversation I realized that I have been in France way too long…. I knew that Black Friday was considered the first day of Christmas shopping and a bustling business day. But I had no idea the extent of it.
It puts a spin of shop until you drop.
(Photo by Gear Dairy)
This morning my daughter sent me a message on Facebook that said,
"Oh no Mother I'm in line already! haha!
We went to Toys-R-Us in Chico at 10pm. Now we're waiting for Walmart's sale at Midnight… This is my true American Experience! lol crazy!"
My mouth hit the floor. I had no idea it was a cultural tradition in the States that begins at midnight! Midnight?! So I wrote "Black Friday" in Google and was even more surprised!
You see this is what happens when you live in a foriegn country for a quarter of a century.
"Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. On this day many U.S. retailers open very early, often at 5 a.m., and offer promotional sales to kick off the shopping season. Because Thanksgiving always falls on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States, the day after occurs between the 23rd and the 29th of November.
The day's name originated in Philadelphia, where it originally was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. Use of the term began by 1966 and began to see broader use outside Philadelphia around 1975. Later an alternative explanation began to be offered: that "Black Friday" indicates the period during which retailers are turning a profit, or "in the black." Wikipedia
Meanwhile back in France…. Annie bought some chestnuts, slit them and roasted them in the oven for about an hour. Then she dumped them out of newspaper, wrapping them up to stay warm.
As we shelled them, I said they were my first chestnuts of the season. So I made a wish, because that is what you do in France.
(In France there is a tradition that when you eat the first strawberry, or cherry, or fig, (in this case chestnuts) of the season you make a wish. (Of course it only works and has meaning in a country where fruits and vegetable are appreciated and grown locally, verses being imported from another place, out of season.) Often you will hear a French person say, "This is my first strawberry of the season, I'm going to make a wish." It is a way of honoring the season, a way to celebrate renewal, rebirth, to connects us to the past with the present.)
What are you doing this Black Friday?
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