Black Friday Outside the USA

Black Friday Means Something Very Different Outside of the USA…

About now, we're all getting spammed with email notifications and social media ads about Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. The USA is celebrating (or mourning) the Thanksgiving holiday, and expects the rest of the world to join in on the joys of unbridled capitalism.

Some of us will; Fates know Black Friday, Boxing Day and EOFY Sales are the only three times a year I can afford to buy decent shoes that won't leave me limping at the end of a shift and will actually last longer than a few months.

But did you know that outside of the United States, "Black Friday" has a very different meaning?

The Knights Templar

In France and other parts of Europe, "Black Friday" is more closely associated with Friday, October 13th, 1307, where the Knights Templar, a Christian Military-Religious sect, were accused of Heresy and arrested en-masse. This was ordered by Phillip IV, King of France. Confessions were obtained under torture, witnesses were questionable and biased at best, and it ultimately led to the downfall and suppression of the Order, five years later.

In France, many were burned at the stake, and the rest sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1312, Pope Clement V issued a Papal Decree, ordering all Christian Kingdoms to arrest the Templars and confiscate their lands and wealth, triggering similar arrests across Europe, though to a far lesser degree. King Edward II of England wrote to the Pope defending the Templars, and Prince Amalric of Tyre, the then-ruler of Cyprus where the Templar's base was, was deliberately slow to respond, giving the Templars ample warning. Germany's response varied wildly by province, and Spain and Portugal actively worked to circumvent the persecution of the knights, largely for political reasons and fear of foreign influence.

Australian Bushfires

On January 13th of 1938–39, Australia saw the Black Friday Bushfires in Victoria, a phenomenon only eclipsed eighty years later by the "Black Summer" of the 2019–20 bushfires.

Bushfires raged that entire summer, also affecting New South Wales and the Australian Capitol Territory to the North and South Australia to the West. Nearly 5,000,000 acres burned, and ash fell as far away as New Zealand. Seventy-one human lives were lost, and entire towns were obliterated.

People of my parents and grandparent's generation refuse to participate on principle, because to them "Black Friday" is a day of Mourning, not of shopping. People of my generation and younger learned about it in school, and lived through the repeat almost a century later.

Black Friday, Ash Wednesday, Black Tuesday, Black Saturday, Black Summer...

These don't trigger feelings of celebration for Australians, but fear and sorrow. We think of lives lost, and remind ourselves to update our bushfire emergency plans - yes, even in the cities. Everyone East of the Hawksbury River knows that if a fire jumps that water barrier, it won't stop until it hits the Pacific Ocean.

During Black Summer, I worked massive amounts of overtime, because so many of my co-workers had to take time off to protect their own homes or be ready to evacuate their families. Nurses and Care Support were called in from other cities and interstate, because workers in at-risk areas had to choose between going to work or their families. We were wearing masks long before COVID-19 made them fashionable, because the smoke and ash was everywhere.

I contributed to two charity anthologies during that time, and put my name down as available to work in South and South-Western Sydney if needed.

Shopping was the last thing on my mind.

On the bright side, the sheer devastation of those fires lead to a Government Commission that revolutionised how we handled bushfires, and the founding of the Country Fire Authority and other rural volunteer fire services.

So… yay silver linings?

Real talk, though…

Black Friday Sales have only really become a thing in Australia over the last decade or so, around the same time as international trade picked up and multinational companies became a thing. Even then, most non-American countries scoff and grumble about capitalism and donate to Indigenous causes.

If you live in the USA, don't give people a hard time if they don't show enthusiasm for Black Friday. It may not mean the same thing to them as it does to you.

If you liked this story, leave a heart or a tip, and follow me on Vocal and Medium!