Hello everybody! Today I would like to tell you about Thanksgiving and Black Friday in America. The first holiday is Thanksgiving which occurs on November 28th this year. The actual date can change, but it’s always celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because, I’m embarrassed to say, but, because I can eat so much food! In reality, it is a day to give thanks for the blessing of the harvest and it dates back to the early 1600’s. Thanksgiving is a national holiday in the US, so most people have off of work. On Thanksgiving we gather together with our loved ones and eat a wonderfully prepared meal. Common foods served on Thanksgiving are turkey, stuffing, cranberries, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie.

The second day that I want to tell you about is called, Black Friday. Black Friday occurs on the day after Thanksgiving and is typically the busiest shopping day of the year. Many people do not have to work on the day after Thanksgiving, and since it is roughly a month prior to Christmas it is a great time for people to get started on their Christmas shopping.

On Black Friday many stores hold big discount sales and open their doors extremely early (or even some of them stay open all night) to attract higher crowds. The reason it is called Black Friday is because it is typically the time when retailers go from the “red” to the “black” on their accounting sheets. If you don’t know, sometimes losses in accounting are recorded in red ink while profits are recorded in black ink – giving us the term Black Friday (which is like the day when businesses go from losses to profits).

Black Friday is such a busy shopping day that honestly I never wanted to experience it. However, I have seen much of the “craziness” on tv. The stores are packed and unfortunately from time to time some people have even gotten hurt due to the shopping frenzy. Shoppers got hurt because everyone rushed into the building, and some people fell and got stepped on. Therefore, I have mixed feelings about Black Friday. I think it’s an interesting shopping phenomenon but honestly sometimes I feel embarrassed by our consumeristic culture, so in that sense I don’t choose to participate. However, it is part of the culture and something that you may be interested to know more about.

I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
If you have any questions, please stop by and let’s have a chat about it!

See ya!
Jackie