"BLACK FRIDAY"

Combat Linguistic Imperialism (& Marketing)

  You also must be tired of reading or hearing about “Black Friday.” My proposal is that we eliminate it. If merchants object, since the sales that day put them in the black, then let’s get rid of those words and call it “Red Friday”, for the other colour in the Canadian flag. Apart from the overuse of “Black Friday” driving us bonkers, consider that it is also American. I had planned to do a lot of research about “Black Friday” and present you with a long essay. But, as usual, Wikipedia does a fine job and even covers Canada. For that matter, one also learns about “Black Friday” in Libya and Wales, where it is more appropriately known as Dydd Gwener y Gwario Gwirion ("Silly Spending Friday").

Use the money you were going to spend and make a generous donation to Wikipedia. About that, I am serious. Have you noticed how many of the AI-generated answers to your questions are based on Wikipedia essays? Eliminate the middle man before it is too late.

  To the merchants’ objection, I will yield, but suggest that it be called something else AND moved to our Thanksgiving. Too many people up here are too busy on American Thanksgiving to go shopping anyway, since they are either watching football or shovelling snow. Snow, another reason to have “Red Friday” earlier.

Cyber Monday The same goes for "Cyber Monday" since it is also an American 'thing'. Let's keep it, if we must for the merchants, but switch it to our earlier holiday date. We could call it "Canuck Monday". My comment about Wikipedia being valuable, holds in this case as well. Look up "Cyber Monday" and you find this CANCON: "Cyber Monday came to Canada in 2008.[15] The National Post featured an article published on November 25, 2010, stating that the parity of the Canadian dollar with the US dollar caused many Canadian retailers to have Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales of their own. According to the article, an estimated 80% of Canadians were expected to participate in Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.[16] Speculation has been made that with all major US television broadcasters—which are typically available to Canadians—emphasizing Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales for stores that are also doing business in Canada, Canadian retailers needed to mimic sales offerings in order to keep Canadian dollars from being spent in the US.[16]" To bring my point home about Wikipedia, see the entry for "Canuck" and you will find that it is a slang term for "Canadian", "though its semantic nuances are manifold".

An editorial cartoon portraying Johnny Canuck (c.1910)

"Jack Canuck: O yes! you all come with the glad hand when you know I'm prosperous" [Caricatures of American President Taft and businessmen. Commenting on the American desire to take advantage of the healthy Canadian economy].

Post Script
Some American readers may be surprised to learn that we have Thanksgiving up here. While theirs takes place on the fourth Thursday of November to celebrate the "Black Friday" that follows, ours takes place on the second Monday of October to give thanks that our crops come in earlier. The Bonus In an earlier post, I discussed "Canadian Thanksgiving" and "Columbus Day", which you are now generally advised not to celebrate.