Thanksgiving is the time of togetherness. It was first celebrated in the 1630s because of the season’s good harvest and has continued to grow since. In the past, there were days of fasting following the days of Thanksgiving. It was so popular that in 1789, when George Washington was president, Thanksgiving was declared a nationwide celebration. On November 26, 1789, the first official Thanksgiving was celebrated.  The holiday is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of every November.  It is the time of year when everyone should be thankful for what they have in life.

The day after Thanksgiving is total havoc – Black Friday. The popularity of Black Friday began to rise in the 2000s. The term “Black Friday” refers to the financial crisis of 1869 and the horrible traffic jams and mobbing of stores on that day. Businesses hope to be “in the black”, or gaining money and out of debt, on the day that is the unofficial start of the Christmas shopping season.

There are people everywhere fighting and clawing at each other for materialistic items in their local mall and Walmarts. For the past couple years, Black Friday has been creeping closer and closer to Thanksgiving. This year, many of the sales started on Thanksgiving Day. For example, Old Navy started its sale at four o’clock in the afternoon on Thanksgiving Day. Later that evening, the mall and most of the stores in it opened at 6 p.m. This is called “Grey Thursday.” Although there are laws in some states such as Massachusetts that prohibit stores from opening for their Black Friday sale before midnight on Thanksgiving Day, those laws do not affect Tennessee.

Rachel Wade, a senior at Central High School, works at American Eagle, which had a forty percent off sale to kick off Black Friday. She works as a sales associate and cashier. Thanksgiving weekend was one of the most stressful weekends of her year.

“I had around 60 hours that week. I was so tired,” she commented. “And the sale we were having lasted throughout the weekend. Most didn’t know that, so on Thursday and Black Friday, they (the customers) were everywhere. There was even a line outside the stores before we opened.”

Thankfully, Rachel survived her first time Black Friday weekend.

Working on Thanksgiving requires sacrifice. The employees have to sacrifice their time and effort on this day of giving. When most are at home eating and spending time with family, employees are slaving away to others demands.

Thanksgiving is a time for families to put aside their issues and join together. Kayla Mroz, another senior at Central, also works at American Eagle as a sales associate and stylist.

“I was really sad when I found out I had to work on Thanksgiving this year,” sighed Kayla. “I missed my family’s first real Thanksgiving in 17 years.” Moments like these are hard to come by and even harder to reoccur.

So are there any benefits to working on Thanksgiving weekend?

“None,” said Kayla.

“A lot of people asked us (Rachel and herself) if we were paid overtime, but we weren’t.”

Thanksgiving should not be tainted by the sales of the big retailers. They are only trying to extract the money out of our pockets. The only way for them to make money is to compete against each other. The one with the biggest sales gets the most customers which equals more money. This is not the reason for the time of year that is meant for thankfulness and spending time with family.