Does Black Friday exist in the UK?

We call our equivalent boxing day - a time when no one with any sense should be out shopping, but it seems like the rest of the country nonetheless is!

Hi oscars, I don't believe Boxing Day is the same date as Thanksgiving.

We used to have the same celebration (Days of Thanksgiving) of the harvest as does most countries, based on a religious tradition, but our nearest equivilant seems to be Guy Fawks Day....according to Wicki.

Jason.

No, Boxing Day (aka St Stephens Day IIRC) is 26th December.

Not sure that there is much if any equivalence between your Thanksgiving, Boxing Day and Guy Fawkes Day (aka Bonfire Night)!!!!

Black Friday is the day the retail trade traditionally starts to make a profit - ie the accounts go from red to black.

From that it has been made into yet another marketing festival.

I bet the early pioneers after their first Thanksgiving Lunch (for surviving the year) did not rush of down to Walmart to buy lots of cheap tat.

Despite the best efforts of the likes of Amazon, Apple and eBay (I've lost count of the Black Friday spam I've had over the last week or so) to get us to buy more stuff, "Black Friday" hasn't yet taken off here (we are fighting a noble rearguard action against the filthy Yankee cultural imperialists ).

It is only a matter of time though, sadly. Only 20 years ago nobody celebrated Hallowe'en, now you can't go out on 31st October without encountering hordes of brats begging for free sweeties. It has eclipsed our traditional Autumn festival, Bonfire night, completely. Which is a terrible shame.

On a slightly different, but related note, Diwali, the Hindu festival of light, is gaining popularity here. Leicester now has the biggest Diwali celebrations outside of India. It's much better than Hallowe'en; the former is about celebrating and feasting with friends, family and neighbours, the latter is just another excuse for confectionery and soft drinks companies to sell crap to make children fat.

Halloween is sponsored by the Dentist's professional organisation. 

With all the costumes and indulgence it seems that a lot of people have lost sight of the real meaning of Halloween. Hardly anyone seems to know that Jesus even fought a dragon, let alone why.

Bonfire Night is traditional and Halloween is not? Newsflash - history didn't start 200 years ago. Or even 500 years ago. Halloween has a good 4,000 years head start and I welcome its celebration (even if it's just kids with sweets) along with all the other diverse festivals which (not through coincidence) occur around this time of year. It used to be the end of our year before comparatively modern, esoteric, Middle Eastern mysticism rewrote history. I think there's room for them all. Why not?

Who said that? We were talking about cultural dissonance, not tradition. Personally I think making explosions and burning effigies is a far better activity to indulge in than guzzling sweets and knocking on old ladies' doors in the pursuit of Cadbury's Screme Eggs

By the way, there is no evidence that I know of that  Hallowe'en is 4,000+ years old - do you have a source for this assertion? It's certainly pre-Christian (probably of Celtic or Roman origin, but four millennia is a bit of a stretch).

In the USA Halloween has become a "beer holiday"...AB-InBev makes a ton of money off it.

Black Friday has become another excuse to overwork the underpaid....last year when I was still in retail pharmacy for K-Mart, they actually had the unmitigated balls to hold a "Gray Thursday" wherein the lowest paid workers (clerical, obviously a few low level managers) had to come in on TG evening from 4:00 until 9:00 and work.

And I am sure the overpaid executives who came up with this brilliant idea were sitting home with their families burping turkey and watching football on TV, congratulating themselves on their marketing acumen. Pr*cks..."those lower paid people probably can''t afford to have a family, so why give them a holiday? After all, they need the money so we're doing them a favor.  Besides, I have a quarterly bonus coming up..."

It didn't even affect me personally (the pharmacy was thankfully closed) but it made me mad for the store clerks, & I thought it a sad commentary on American life, both from the above mentioned executive decision, as well as the "need" for shoppers to come out on TG day to shop.  God forbid we have a real holiday and spend time at home. Lord knows there's only another month or so until Christmas - how on earth will I get everything I need by then?

You know, when I was a kid, you couldn't find anything open on TG, except for maybe the odd Asian run convenience store.  Oddly, I don't remember anyone dying from lack of shopping opportunities.  And IIRC, there have been studies run showing that Black Friday really is not a money saver for shoppers in most cases.

That would be you: "It has eclipsed our traditional Autumn festival, Bonfire night, completely. Which is a terrible shame."

Sources are plentiful. "Sanhain" is a reasonable point to work both forwards and backwards from. I welcome its commemoration as I welcome the commemoration of all the festivals. It's a great time of year to witness the diversity of festival celebration. None of it means anything to me personally.

Yep, ole Ron is an ancient Egyptian fertility symbol. I think it's due to the hormones he bestowed upon cattle so that upon eating them, Pharaoh's subjects might be happy, healthy, possessed of large breasts and big cocks and subject to his will.

I know what "Samhain" [note spelling] is. It's certainly pre-Christian in the Celtic and Gaulish lands, but there's no evidence that it goes back 4,000 years. Or is there?

I know. They had to eat hen (or if they were posh, quail or swan) eggs. Oh the pity of it all!

Thank you for the correction Kevin. One day I will take typing as a hobby.

Char: if that's the gist of it, then fair enough. I applaud the commemoration but past that, nothing.

Sorry about that but as a writer I'm a bit pedantic in these matters. Don't bother taking up typing as a hobby, it's even more boring than hi-fi. As for making a living out of it - again, don't bother: the money's lousy. 

It could have been worse. I nearly included a "v".

Thanks for the advice Char. On balance I think I would rather starve for the day. And not drag all the vinyl out of the loft for the sake of just looking at it.

Learn something new here every day!  I always thought Halloween's origins only went back to medieval times to the Catholic All Saints/All Souls celebrations.  Had never heard of Sanhain till now, but I guess many, if nor most, Christian traditions have Pagan and/or Wiccan origins.

Halloween has been my favorite holiday for the past decade, ever since moving to our home in the city. We border a couple of less gentrified neighborhoods, so we get a couple of hundred kids from all backgrounds knocking on the door each year.  Knowing it's going to take a fair amount of work, we invite family and friends over for dinner each year.  Many also come in costume, and so the mood is always festive. Yes, yer honor, I plead guilty to once a year contributing to childhood obesity and tooth decay.  But I love kids, and I get a huge kick out of answering the door, and messing with their little minds just a bit.  For example, when there's a group or 4 or 5, and you have one little shy kid at the back, I'll make a big deal over that kid's costume, and imply that he's the only one getting candy.  The looks of panic (at least those without masks that I can see) are too funny.  But I am not mean about it, and within seconds they all know I am just kidding. After all, I do not want to risk my windows getting egged, or my trees getting TP'ed!

There is one Hispanic family that always shows up, and regardless of the cold weather, the Dad (he's an older guy -- may be the Grandad) always dresses like a Roman soldier.  And each and every year, he loudly and proudly proclaims "I am Julius Caesar, and it is your privilege to meet me!". 

We do have a lot of fun with it, and it is much more fun for me than the chaos of Christmas morning!

ATB.

Hook

Revisionism rules Hook. And there was a time when some of these now leisure and consumer orientated festivals of over indulgence were introduced on pain of death.  You can bet anything you like that people celebrating the returning sun, Yule, or whatever a couple of thousand years back and more, didn’t know anything about Middle Eastern mysticism, pregnant women on donkeys, or witless husbands who set out without organising  accommodation first.

I am happy to see the festivals of all the religions commerated, celebrated, remembered whatever. I think that it adds to the diversity of culture and also serves to remind us that nothing fundamental has changed past the window dressing.  I don’t personally celebrate anything. But we do load up the local kids on October 31^st (and offer toothbrushes which amuses the parents but has never been acted on by the target recipients) and at the end of December I usually get a week off work. So something for everyone.