Happy Black Friday!
Today is the day that people kick-off a wave of ludicrous spending they can't really afford, simply because stuff is on sale. What it means to me is that I have to avoid shopping areas like the plague for the next month so I don't get driven insane. This is kind of difficult considering I have projects to finish and trips to take.
Black Friday this year is on/around the celebration of Eid al-Adha for my Muslim friends. When it comes to events, the two could not be more diametrically opposed. Black Friday is mostly about money, shopping, and possessions-- through spending. Eid al-Adha is mostly about life, sharing, and charity-- through sacrifice.
As if the irony wasn't already thick enough, Best Buy made an attempt to combine the two events in one of their Black Friday ads, and now Hard-Core-Christian-Conservative-America is losing their collective mind. They freak out and threaten boycott when people say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" for their religion... and yet when somebody tries to be inclusive of other religions with holiday wishes, they want to boycott for that too (and never mind that Eid al-Adha comes from the story of Abraham of The Bible in which both Christians and Jews profess to believe)...
I guess unless your business is marketing exclusively to Christians, you just can't win around the holidays in the USA. So much for freedom of religion. To be fair, I certainly hope that Best Buy will remember to wish people a "Merry Christmas" in their ads around December 25th and "Happy Hanukkah" around December 11th. And is it too much to hope that Buddhists will get a "Happy Bodhi Day" on the 8th of December? Wow... this could go on a while if they want to be really fair and inclusive.
As I've said, I don't get offended when somebody wishes me a "Merry Christmas"... they are simply trying to be nice and include me in the spirit of their holiday. Why this never seems to work in reverse is a mystery to me.
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regarding boycotts, i found an entertaining article from the l.a. times you might like. enjoy! 🙂
Hah! Thanks! It only reinforces what is always said… there is no bad publicity. When a boycott is called, all it does is give exposure to the company that they ordinarily wouldn’t have.
In previous years, Best Buy was attacked for not saying “Merry Christmas.” Then this year they decide to rectify that, but to also include other religions so as to be welcoming to everybody, and just get attacked again. They literally cannot win. It’s boycott, boycott, boycott, no matter what they do. Oh well… hopefully the publicity with be a win for trying.
Hard-core fundamentalist Christians won’t be happy unless you accept them, but ignore everybody else. That’s about as anti-American as it gets, and boycotts and intolerance is the new America. How very sad for us.
So is Happy Chrismahanukwanzika totally out of the question? I know it’s a Virgin Mobile marketing gimmick from two years ago, but I think it is so absurd and I can finally say it effortlessly….
Whatever gets you through the season! 🙂
I think we should re-organize the blogosphere as a new religion and invent random holidays just to confuse the heck out of the non-believers. Hey, you could be a high priest or something…
The Church of Daveology is always accepting new members…
Wow. Just wow.
Good luck avoiding all the retail meccas! Crrrrazy!
Thanks. I’ll need all the luck I can get. I am holding off until Monday to get the stuff I need to buy for my next trip… hopefully things will have calmed down by then.
That is both equal parts funny and pathetic. It’s funny watching the religious right freak out, but pathetic that they feel the need to.
I give credit to Best Buy for actually trying. Although their ad is shooting for spending excess whereas, like you said, Eid Al-Adha is about sacrifice (I have a friend at work who is a devout Muslim and we talk about Eid from time to time as I’ve always been interested in other religious practices).
Sometimes I’m sad I was born Christian.
But it’s not all Christians who feel this way. It’s mostly hard-core, fundamentalist, Conservative Christians that are giving a bad name to everybody else in that religion. Just as there are Islamic extremists who are giving a bad name to everybody else in that religion.
When I was in Turkey, I noticed that many different faiths all seem to have no problem living together in harmony. In Istanbul you can be in a neighborhood with a mosque on one corner, a church on another, and a synagogue on another. Everybody does their own religious thing separately, and then come together as a community. In this respect, they’re living the American dream that we advertise, but are too weak to claim for ourselves… we’re too busy pointing fingers and boycotting everything and everybody.
We’d all be a lot happier if the religious right figured out that they don’t have to rule the world.
I had not heard of Bodhi Day until now. It’s my opinion that Buddhism and Christianity aren’t mutually exclusive, and have heard it argued that Christ himself can be considered a Buddha. We celebrate Christmas and Easter in our house because I don’t think you have to be Christian to value the teachings of Christ and to incorporate them into your life.
That is amazing. And pathetic. And it makes me angry. And sad.
(I am not doing well with words today, obviously!)
I, too, am avoiding the stores until Monday.
Our family went to the Atlanta zoo yesterday with my in-laws. After about an hour, Deb said, “Hey, have you noticed there aren’t any reds (how we identify rednecks) here today…must be because they’re all shopping. Those of us with some sense are enjoying the actual zoo instead of the figurative one.”
I shop online or a few days before Christmas.
Hope you have an awesome December: good work/life balance and good health.
Those that are offended are only looking for press. I don’t mind people wishing me “Merry Christmas” either. It’s being nice and cordial, at least that’s how I take it.
As for the Black Friday sales, I partially bowed out this year. I did some online shopping at the Apple Store and Amazon and waited until 7am to go to Target, instead of getting up and waiting in line in the freezing cold at 4am like I’ve done in years previous.