Black Friday

[Strider]

It might not mean much to those overseas, but the morning after Thanksgiving here in the U.S. is known as the biggest shopping day of the year. There isn't a store in sight that doesn't have some kind of massive sale going on, which naturally attracts crowds in the millions to malls and gimongous chain stores throughout the country.

...Okay, maybe it's not millions, but it is really busy. Men and women descend upon toys, clothes and gadgetry like locusts on Egypt, trying to be the one who gets everything they want in one fell swoop. It doesn't usually happen, though, since there's always some kind of tug-of-war or backyard-wrestling-in-the-store deal. I remember trying to get one toy last year, one thing, 6 AM right as the store opened, and they were completely sold out within five minutes of opening. Yeah, it's that vicious.

Therefore, I refer to this occassion as Black Friday. Anyone else ever partake in this, and have any interesting stories? Or for those in Europe or wherever, is there one day in the year where things get like this?

[zacks_clone]

I'd much prefer to keep my body in tack,thank you. But I know alot of my classmates who have made it a tradition. They go every year. Me, i sit at home and munch on leftovers all day, complaining that someone ate all of my pie.

[eestlinc]

Friday is international Buy Nothing day. This should be especially easy to celebrate for the millions of the world with no money at all.

[Strider]

Man, that's a protest just waiting to fail here in America, though.

[Skogs]

I can't think of anything like that in Europe. Or Australia, for that matter.

[Chaos]

Black Friday is an event that happened in 1910 in London, England. A group of 300 suffragettes under Sylvia Pankhurst went to the House of Commons to protest against the failure to deliver a promised Equal franchise bill that would allow women the vote. (The bill was used as a trick to stop the supporters of suffrage from voting for a bill that shuold of gauranteed women the vote...)

Anyway, Asquith, the prime minister at the time ordered the police on the women - who were marching peacfully - and said they could use as much force as they deemed necessary to remove them. Cue women being picked up, hit and generally groped and manhandled. Some were pushed to the floor and beaten. It resulted in 2 dead.

The event was named 'Black Friday' by the Daily Mirror in it's headline, and the name stuck.

Its kinda funny, but the pictures of policement grabbing women and lifting them up were on the whole considered rather erotic by some men. I guess everyone was way pruder in 1910 than now.

Anyway...I kinda had to say that. Black Friday: angry woman lifting day, not mass shopping day.

Chaos

[DeBlayde]

I can participate in the Buy Nothing protest. mostly since I'll be visiting my mum over the weekend, and she's always got a long list of extremely physical chores that mysteriously pop up outta left field with no prior planning whatsoever, it just strangely happened to occur on the day that I came for a visit, planned or otherwise.

[Peegee]

It's also my birthday. God how I want to be american, if only for that day.

[Psychotic]

When I saw this thread title, I thought of what Chaos posted. So...yeah.

[Chaos]

AS level history rocked!

Its suprising how much I've retained.

Chaos

[Roogle]

I thought Black Friday was the term for Valentine's Day to those who don't have a significant other. :rolleyes2

[Psychotic]

AS level history rocked!

Its suprising how much I've retained.

Chaos

Yeah! I dropped it for A Level though, as I only got a C. Admittedly it was a high C, but that is never the point. (And what the hell was with the question on the concilliation bill?)

[Peegee]

No that's "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA you wasted your money" day

[Shlup]

On Thanksgiving I'll be with my boyfriend's family, and my dad's side of the family is having a Thanksgiving dinner on Friday, so I guess I'll be missing the sales.

[diddlydoo]

I never get up in time to take advantage of the crazy sales. But my parents usually do it up.