There is chaos against the US
national festive ‘Black Friday’ or ‘Thanksgiving Day’ in Pakistan when the
religious segment unnecessarily creating an imbroglio for themselves as the
Americans never forced anyone to celebrate the ‘Thanksgiving Day’ or ‘Black
Friday” but people in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan seem more incline to
observe the festive despite have no such belonging with the event. It is such
unfortunate that the so-called or pseudo religious scholars look more
contentious and continuously condemning the initiatives taken by the vendors
around the country and announced up to 80 percent discount in shopping.
Rather advocating such tradition that increases it range to implement the same
practice during the holy month of Ramazan and to provide relief to the poor
people of the country and let them to celebrate their religious festive
Eid-ul-Fitr or Eid-ul-Adha with proper religious zeal. What I could perceive
from their varied statements and stance on the same issue that they may support
the event if they would be given proper ‘Halwa.’ It was witnessed at a private
TV channel that a TV anchor was furiously slamming and relating it to the
sacredness of Friday in Islam though it does not do anything with the importance
of Friday in Islam but to provide an opportunity to the poor to purchase
something more affordable prices.
Interestingly, the tradition of Thanksgiving was started way back in 1621 to
celebrate a good harvest by English Pilgrims at Plymouth Plantation in
Massachusetts sharing a meal with their Native American neighbourers. However,
historian Michael Gannon claimed that the first Thanksgiving celebration in
North America actually took place in Florida on 8th September 1565, half a
century earlier the previous claim, following a religious service, Spaniards
shared a communal meal with the local native tribe. According to the US National
Archives, on 28 September 1789, the first Federal Congress passed a resolution
asking that the president of the United States should recommend to the nation a
day of thanksgiving and George Washington, the then president, issued a
proclamation naming Thursday 26 November 1789 as a “Day of Publick Thanksgivin.”
While the ‘Black Friday’ has become as synonymous with Thanksgiving as pumpkin
pie, but there are a lot of myths surrounding the origins of the shopping event,
some even going back as far as the 1800s. Along with the cheese-steak and the
hoagie, the term ‘Black Friday’ is also coined in Philadelphia in the 1950s,
when police in The City of Brotherly Love used the term to describe the horde of
shoppers from the suburbs that descended into the city for the days after
Thanksgiving, according to Bonnie Taylor-Blake, a neuroscience researcher at the
University of North Carolina.
We, as a nation whole, can never appreciate anything good to others because it
becomes the psyche of the entire lot that what profits me is the only thought
comes when something new is being told to us. It is not necessary to mention
that anchor’s name but really funny to know his argument to condemning the term
‘Black Firday,’ as he informed the audience that Hazrat Adam was allowed to
enter into the heaven on Friday while he contradicted by saying that Adam was
thrown away on Friday too. He also quoted some countries from Middle East which
transformed the word ‘Black Friday’ into the ‘White Friday’ but there is
question what makes them to spend their energy in such awful and time wasting
engagement because what if the Friday is black or white does it change its
importance just because of the name that was unintentionally coined by the
commoners. Please give room to others to practice their religious or social
rituals as you have the same right to practice.