Brown Thursday is what the marketers and bottom-liners are calling it. But Americans in former generations had traditionally called the fourth Thursday of November Thanksgiving. Apparently businesses just aren’t making enough money from the crush of customers on Black Friday. Now we need Brown Thursday to pick up the slack.
Don’t stay at home and enjoy some time in gratitude with your family. No. Rather than a day of over-eating, why not a day of over-spending? Let’s just completely shroud the original purposes of Thanksgiving in an even bigger pile of inexpensive goods. And better yet, because businesses will have to be open for you to shop, your actions will ruin the Thanksgiving plans of millions of workers who may have wanted to enjoy Brown Thursday the traditional way—at home with their families.
Black Friday was bad enough. Memes abound on the irony of it: “Only in America would you trample other people trying to get what you want the very next day after you commemorated your thankfulness for what you already have.” Indeed.
But these kinds of sentiments are missing the point. Brown Thursday is not an external imposition on our day of gratitude or an attempt by the irreligious to obscure the origins of Thanksgiving. More and more, I am realizing that market developments are just a reflection of current realities. At best, they are slightly ahead of popular trends. At worst, they are just following them. If Brown Thursday becomes as popular as Black Friday, it will be because Americans were already celebrating Brown Thursday in an unofficial but substantial way. Brown Thursday hasn’t killed Thanksgiving. It may be that the true spirit of Thanksgiving was already dead.
Consider the first official Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, issued by George Washington in 1789. Listen to these words and ask yourself whether any of us are really celebrating Thanksgiving the way it was intended:
Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation—for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war—for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed—for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted—for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.
And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions—to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually—to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed—to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord—To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us—and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.
We’ve come a long way since then. A long way backwards. What began as a very religious day of humble gratitude to God and thanksgiving for His Providence turned into a generic day of family values and turkey and then into a meaningless day of gluttonous over-eating and then finally into Brown Thursday—a completely materialistic day of over-eating and over-spending.
So tomorrow, I ask you to do everything you can to reclaim the original spirit of gratitude that marked the first Thanksgivings. Give thanks to God, celebrate with what good food and drink you can muster, love your family, and stay at home. Brown Thursday is aptly named—it’s total bovine scatology. May it die with this year’s Thanksgiving turkey.
The commercialization of both Thanksgiving and Christmas became a thorn in my side 25 years ago. I am free from this spend, spend, and spend some more mentality pushed by commercial businesses. Thanksgiving is a day set aside to give thanks to Almighty God for the blessings we have…thankful for our freedom to worship, thankful for our families, and thankful for the blessings of Liberty given us in our Constitutional Republic. Give thanks in everything, and have a blessed Thanksgiving.
Kalli….I agree one hundred percent with your thoughtful and well-
written response. I too gave up “Commercial Christmas” quite some
years back, and “educated” my friends/family as to the why and what
way I came by that decision. Sadly the commercialism continues and
causes a huge ruckus in whatever big box store or shopping mall one
may want to take their life in their hands to go to, but I’m absolutely
not one of them. Having seen The Light years ago and knowing the
best Path in Life to follow, I believe I’ve changed some opinions on
the disgusting topic of “commercialism” along the way. May you and
yours have a Blessed Thanksgiving and Christmas knowing the real
reason for the seasons, and every day in between. Respectfully……
God Bless you!
Paintinc56: And Blessings to You and Yours too!
Respectfully…………….
A great post Kalii, and oh so true, thank you for your wisdom.
Thank you, well said, & the same to you & yours. HAPPY THANKSGIVING everyone!
You guys are just like the bleeding heart liberals who are boycotting Wal mart, toys r us, etc. so nice you think like Libs. Heart warming. But hey, we thought of it first.
Not even close – the reasoning is not the same at all. I fully support capitalism and a free market; doesn’t mean I have to shop on my holidays.
Huge difference between boycotting and refocusing on what’s important. But nice of you to drop by.
Crawl back to media matters & pick up your pack of cigarettes, brain dead leftist troll.
And a Happy Thanksgiving to you, too. Sheesh…
I already had no plans to go into store that is open on Thanksgiving
I have no plan at all going to any of them anytime. I make my own gifts with my own two hands, and they are always appreciated, even by the youngest child. I suppose I am very lucky.
Awesome….I treasure the handmade gifts given to me, and they leave lasting memories of the giver.
Don’t forget now it’s also a day to propagandize your family regarding obamacare.
Obama can stick his commie where the sun won’t shine anymore, and keep it there for good.
Obamacare will not be mentioned at the dinner table on Thanksgiving,It is bad enough we have to put up with Obama for 3 more years.
The last thing I want to hear is anything about Obama, its upsets everyone who speaks his dirty name in my family. NO our Holiday will be about our gathering and our family, not about the worst tyrant in our world.
Don’t go to the stores. It really is that simple. No sales, no sense to stay open. Easy. I refuse to go anywhere on Black Friday, Green Saturday, or Gold Sunday, I know for a fact ain’t nobody cuttin into my time with my Bird and my cranberry sauce.
It takes stupid people to ruin great traditions, just don’t be a stupid people.
Beautifully said.
Black Friday, Green Sunday, Brown Thursday, I haven’t the money to spend on any of them, so it makes me not one bit of difference what they do. Only fools go in debt for Christmas. Its not what Christmas is about, it’s about Jesus, and family, not about gifts and expensive toy’s you can’t afford.
If the economy was as great as the Administration claims it to be, the stores would not be open. To survive they are trying everything they can think of.
Have you noticed in reading the writings of our forefathers how much better EDUCATED they were? Our current president says gonna & other slang, & comes off sounding like a classless moron, as do most of the Democrats & their media lapdogs. It is amazing to me how they rave about Obama’s intelligence, does anyone actually LISTEN to what he says & the way he says it?
Take a look at their school primer as well as some of their math books and The Bible was taught in their school for morals as well as to teach students to read, comprehend and to be able to do critical and analytical thinking. We exchanged the teachings of Math, Unadulterated History, Real Science, English and Critical/analytical thinking for what? Something called Math but isn’t, Unsubstantiated history, (If the group that wrote the book doesn’t agree with it, they change it), Theorems for scientific fact, no English for someone might be insulted, and no critical/analytical thinking and that morals are situational a well as brainwashing them to think that immorality is the norm. Sad but that must be what we want for people are silent. I wonder how many will even show up when their representative or senator holds a meeting in their district?
Brown Thursday sounds a lot like progressive/liberal toilet talk. And about as pertinent to the true meaning of Thanksgiving. Really, they are afflicted with cranial impaction of the rectum syndrome.
It’s easy for me not to join in. I’ve been unemployed since last May. If you don’t have the extra to buy anything, then you don’t buy.
Those that go out to buy, they have to live with the cheap things that have been discounted from their over inflated prices. Even when I had extra, I didn’t go crazy as some do. I praise God that I have a good wife who saves or we would be in dire straits now. Oh well.
My prayers go out to the many who have lost their jobs and are struggling to make ends meet. I’ve been unemployed nearly 3.5 yrs., and when the going gets tough, God always brings me through it. You and yours have a Blessed Thanksgiving. I hope things will turn around for you in the coming year. God bless.
Thank you. I’ll also keep you in my prayers. In a way this has been a blessing. I love to study God’s Holy Bible. There is so much there that is plain spoken and easily understood that churches and religions make hard to understand. Also there is so much of the New Testament in the Old Testament that makes you wonder why when the preachers preach from the pulpit, that they don’t make the connections which would bring understanding and ensure that they do not twist or otherwise make scripture hard to understand. Oh well. As I always taught when I was a Sunday Teacher, God has a reason.
What you say about the Old and New Testaments is so true. Too many churches are teaching false doctrines, and unless one studies the Bible, they don’t know they are being misled. The one blessing in being unemployed is having more time to study God’s Word. Several weeks ago, I had a response to a post of mine calling me a religious whack job, and I responded that I was honored to be in the same group as Jesus and His Disciples who were religious whack jobs in their day. Blessings…k
Every thing is about money! Christmas has become a rout of spending for worthless crap that won’ t work by the end of the day, and is characterized by raindeer, santa, dwarfs, snoopy, and flashing lights akin to a mexican car lot, and thanksgiving has become a setup for spending on trash at a starting line called black friday and propping up the “holiday income” they can’t say christmas! Easter has become an egg laying rabbit, egg hunts, and candy! Easy to believe all religious “holidays” that observe or celebrate very important events in christianity will be bastardized by the athiest who reside mostly on the left, they hate the religion but love the money generated. True christians attend their church on these events, sunrise services, mass, bibles for gifts on christmas, regardless of what the school system says no one should be offended by these “holidays”. Um, Holidays, They can’t even say the word Christmas and “holiday” sounds just like a day off for the union, another labor day, another presidents day, bosses day, independence day,etc. But alas, nothing so exciting as that, just more religious ceremonies and celebrations! These pagan people make me sick! Bastardize your own birthday, bastardize your own funeral! Bastardize your own worship of earth, trees, golden calfs (mammon), or your illustrious leader. Leave ours alone, puke!
Commercialization of holidays and holy days has been going on since the beginning of civilization. When you consider the alternative, I will stick with commercialization.
What did Jesus the Christ say, as he drove the “money changers” from the temple?
That happened more than a few years ago. Seems that the money changers have overtaken the Western World.
What did Jesus the Christ say as he drove the “money changers” from the temple ?
Seems that money changers have overtaken the western world. Are they the foreign tail that has been wagging the US dog since about 1950 ?
The Hebrew scholar, Shlomo Sand, clarified the identity of this society in his book, “The Invention of the Jewish People.” Could this be the same society that teaches that Jesus of Nazareth was not the Christ, that he married Mary Magdalene and had several children with her ? Naturally, the society professor Sand fingered denies the information, just as the alias, Barrack H. Obama, and the evil minions that support him, deny the truth. Professor Sand established a trail of historical fact.
“Only in America would you trample other people trying to get what you want the very next day after you commemorated your thankfulness for what you already have.” Excellent, Mike! That’s a quote to remember!
funny, but we used to go to the movies Thanksgiving night after the family left.. the theaters used to be packed that night.. then around 6am. on black friday the stores would open… Commercialism of Jesus Christ’ birthday celebration seems to come earlier every year.
The more WE THE PEOPLE allow the US gubmint to squash Christmas, and Jesus in our country, the sooner the stores open.. get ready for July 4th sale, then the following weekend comes the pre-pre-black friday sales