We approach the end of another year. The months of November and December are the big months for retail folks. This is probably because there are more holidays in those months. If you cheat a little, and include the last week of October, a lot more. You can call the 1st of November, All Saints Day, the extension of Halloween. It’s not all that big a cheat. There are lots of bigger cheats that have gone down during history.
One of the sad things about this retail bonus time is that quite often it blurs the meaning behind the holiday itself. As an example, Thanksgiving was originally a celebration by the colonists. They had survived the year. The harvest had come in. There was food and so the folks said let’s celebrate. For many the Thanksgiving dinner is a highlight of that celebration. Nowadays they sell Honey Baked Ham or Butterball Turkeys by the boat load, not the harvest.
Then because the folks were home the football, people started games on Thanksgiving so they could sell tickets and TV ads.. The retailers noted that Friday was also a holiday; they started having big sales. In the last few years some have even opened T Day afternoon to get a jump. I notice that Chevrolet has even designated the whole month of November as Black Friday to sell more cars.
All of this is the prelude to Cyber, Green and Brown Mondays where the e-tailers have designated their big days, to sell more. I guess that is for the poor folks who had to work on the brick retailers days or maybe folks that can order on line at work. Who knows?
The brick and mortar guys keep up the pace for the next couple of weeks too. They also have Christmas gifts to sell.. In the first one, according to tradition, there were only three. I guess we could still give gold, but myrrh and Frankincense are not on many shelves. The message of Peace and Good Will has faded. But there is good news for seasonal workers as they expect the sales to jump to over $620 billion. We will need several hundred thousand part time workers somewhere.
By this time some may think me the reincarnation of Scrooge. That is for you to decide. It is just an expression of my concern about the loss of the underlying meaning of the Holidays. Maybe a little bit about my lack of fondness for pumpkin pie and turkey. However, I do like cranberry, so give me a break there.
The real point is we do have something to be Thankful for and the other stuff is a part of life. This is especially true for families and young folks. Those of us who are older and have many memories can remember quite easily the joy of true thankfulness for the survival and bounty of a harvest. I just want to say, as the Holidays arrive, let your Thanking be mindful of the meaning.
