Last Thursday people in the United States celebrated the Thanksgiving Holiday, the day that commemorates a shared meal between English settlers, or pilgrims and the Native Americans. The day is marked by the near universal tradition of eating a turkey for dinner.
Immediately following Thanksgiving is what is now referred to as Black Friday, which officially acknowledges the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. This tradition became popular in the 1970's and features the sale of retail goods at large discount to lure customers to shop at large stores.
This year there was a bit of a controversy as some stores began to open on Thursday or Thanksgiving evening. Workers complained that they were no longer able to spend the holiday with their families. Their complaints did not seem to make a difference, as many stores opened on Thursday or in the very early hours of Friday morning.
According to many news reports this year's Black Friday seems to have been a success, with shoppers spending more than 11 billion dollars in stores and over one billion dollars online during late Thursday and Friday. Inevitably there were few violent outbursts, as customers fought over bargain items. Fortunately, no one was killed although the American humor magazine, “The Onion,” ran an article headlined, “42 million dead in bloodiest Black Friday on record.”
