For those of us immersed in preparations for Christmas, the one week remaining feels insufficiently brief, and the three weeks since Thanksgiving seem more like three days. As fleeting as time is between Turkey Day and Dec. 25, we in the U.S. possess a peculiarly American interpretation of when the Christmas season "begins."
My British friend Dan pointed this out to me several years ago when he noted that in the U.K., the onset of Yuletide planning and purchasing is quite vague in contrast to the commercially significant Thanksgiving weekend in the States.
It's true -- no matter how many Americans get a jump-start on Christmas before the fourth Thursday in November, most of us don't start thinking about it in earnest until there's nothing but a meatless carcass on the Thanksgiving platter.
For a very long time, U.S. businesses have made it their business to ensure that we waste no time in our transition from turkey feast to spending spree.
Since the 1920s, Thanksgiving Day parades, like the familiar Macy's extravaganza, have had relatively little to do with Thanksgiving and nearly everything to do with ushering in the Christmas season.
So captivated are we by the tradition of Macy's parade concluding with the official Christmas-signaling appearance of Santa Claus himself, that over the past six decades, movie, radio, television, and stage producers have given us no fewer than eight versions of Valentine Davies' "Miracle on 34th Street."
More than 40 years ago, the commercial exploitation of post-Thanksgiving shopping gave rise to a new meaning (and now the primary American meaning) of the term "Black Friday."
Indeed, in the New Oxford American Dictionary, "Black Friday" is defined as "1) the day after Thanksgiving, noted as the first day of traditional Christmas shopping, during which crowds of consumers are drawn to special offers by retailers. 2) September 24, 1869. On this date, an attempt by a few speculators to corner the U.S. gold market was thwarted when President Ulysses S. Grant released government gold for sale, making gold prices plummet and creating a panic in the stock market." (Apparently, in America, shopping trumps panicking.)
In the U.K.'s Oxford Dictionary of English, there is no entry for "Black Friday," though it would not be surprising if the term (in its "day after Thanksgiving" sense) were to appear in a future edition. Some of my British colleagues have told me that Amazon's U.K. website is now promoting Black Friday sales in the British market.
That says a lot about the commercial potency of Black Friday -- imagine a marketing scheme based on the day after a holiday that doesn't even exist for the targeted consumers.
A much newer term to enter the lexicon of consumerism is "Cyber Monday," reportedly coined in 2005. As most Americans already know, Cyber Monday is the Monday following Black Friday, and is the "more civilized" alternative to facing the frenzy of Friday's traffic, long lines, and those wee-hour sale times that have become ridiculously competitive.
Anyone who has ever done any online shopping invariably woke up Monday, Nov. 29, to several e-mails promoting Cyber Monday online specials.
I, for one, stayed home on Black Friday and overlooked Cyber Monday in favor of the following day, in which I imagined all the useless, unnecessary, extravagant gifts I wanted to buy and waited for them to magically appear. I called it "Telepathic Tuesday."
You know, I waited all day and night and nothing appeared, but as sales go, it was terrific. I saved so much money on Christmas shopping that I think I'll make it an annual tradition.
Edmeston resident Christine A. Lindberg, senior U.S. lexicographer for Oxford University Press, is the principal content editor of Oxford's American English dictionaries and thesauruses. Opinions expressed by Lindberg in this column are done so independently, and do not necessarily reflect the policies and practices of Oxford University Press. Have a question or comment relating to the English language? E-mail: languagewithlindberg@gmail.com. Selected submissions will be answered here periodically.
Let's Look At The Language
America's Christmas season influencing other languages
- Let's Look At The Language
-
-
'We'll take a cup o' kindness yet, for auld lang syne'
By Christine A. Lindberg A song that "owns" a particular day of the year is rare.
-
Here comes Santa Claus ... where'd he get that snazzy red suit?
Years ago, I had a book of letters written to Santa Claus, and I remember that, among all the messages of "bring me this," "bring me that," and "I'll leave you a plate of cookies," one little boy had written, "Dear Santa, Where did you get your snazzy red suit?" I wouldn't be surprised if the author of that question grew up to be either a reporter or a fashion consultant, but in any event, I hope he got an answer to his question.
-
Where do I plug in these Electric Prunes?
Those of us who make the family feasts of Thanksgiving and Christmas magically appear on the table know there's nothing magic about it.
-
The sometimes-cryptic language of company names
Cream cheese originated in 1872 as the result of William Lawrence's failure to duplicate the French cheese Neufchatel. By 1880, he knew his "accidental cheese" was good enough for distribution, so he packaged it in foil wrappers and called it Philadelphia Cream Cheese.
-
Humorist Will Rogers: One of the crown jewels in American language
Defined as "a humorous writer, performer or artist," a humorist could technically be anyone who makes you laugh, but my concept of a humorist is not nearly so broad
-
Not quite an 'Ode to Pepé Le Pew' after gross, stinky encounter
My previous column ended with the words "sweet dreams," which are nice if you can get 'em, but sometimes the occasion of slumber time is a few degrees short of sweet.
-
What will my dream-doctor say about this orgledream in my head?
I just read a snippet of folklore that tells me "a dream of grasshoppers means that something is confusing you."
-
Names of hurricanes don't match reality
When the storm named Irene barreled up into Edmeston four weeks ago, I didn't think I'd still be looking down upon the vestiges of her destruction from my upstairs windows.
-
Sometimes an unremarkable day is the one we should cherish the most
Ten years ago today, it was a summery Sept. 10 here in Central New York. The temperature hovered in the 80s and there was an occasional drizzle here and there.
-
'Don't miss it, don't even be late' The Great New York State Fair is here
"Our state fair is a great state fair! Don't miss it, don't even be late. It's dollars to doughnuts that our state fair is the best state fair in our state!"
-
Some of it's all Greek to me, but mostly it's just herbaceously aromatic
For the past five years, I've been a container gardener (having given up the backyard to my dogs).
-
Like gods on the heptagram, so are the days of our week
-
'Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?' just not the same
When the Baltimore Orioles' third baseman took the field on May 30, 1982, not even Nostradamus could have foreseen that one of the most celebrated streaks in baseball was beginning at that very moment. The player was Cal Ripken Jr., whose 2,131st consecutive game on Sept. 6, 1995, surpassed Lou Gehrig's "unsurpassable" record.
-
A frabjous Fourth of July to everyone!
If there's one date in history that every American can cite, it's the day that the Continental Congress gave its nod to the Declaration of Independence: July 4, 1776.
-
I wonder if ancient Romans ever put sanctions on that two-faced Janus
Someone recently asked me if I could explain the meaning of the word "sanction.
-
June is bustin' out all over!
When "Carousel," the second stage musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, opened on Broadway on April 19, 1945, the audience left the theater in buoyant spirits.
-
Go ahead and have a rat on a stick, but please don't call it a lollipop
I recent read that this Tuesday is National Escargot Day. I was unable to find any compelling evidence that this is an official national day for any nation in particular, but it does seem that throughout the U.K. and North America, French restaurants have happily adopted the day as a time to celebrate their garlicky little mollusks.
-
Onomatopoeic power of wheatgrass souffle
“The formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named” is the New Oxford American Dictionary’s definition of “onomatopoeia” (Ah-Nuh-mah-tuh-PEE-uh).
-
The language of Benjamin Franklin, in whatever name he used
When Benjamin Franklin died 221 years ago this month, the entire Western world mourned, yet his gravestone reads (in full), “Benjamin and Deborah Franklin 1790.”
-
There's nothing like a good spoonerism to tickle a bunny phone
The English economist Sir Roy Forbes Harrod (1900"1978) once said that, compared to all the scholars he had known at Oxford and Cambridge, the Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844"1930) was the most exceptional in "scholarship, devotion to duty, and wisdom." There is no reason to question Harrod's assessment, but that's not exactly the imprint by which Spooner is best remembered.
-
'We'll take a cup o' kindness yet, for auld lang syne'
