Through and Through

In an otherwise timely and important article (and I have never exactly been his biggest fan), George Carey writes that:

"Of course, it is only in recent years that we’ve even heard of Black Friday, and that is because it is an American phenomenon through and through.

"It has its roots in Thanksgiving, which itself is based on Christian celebrations for the harvest, and is associated closely with the Pilgrim Fathers."

But, as Dr Carey must surely know, the Puritans despised harvest festivals, and ruthlessly suppressed them.

The association of Thanksgiving with the Pilgrim Fathers is also a fiction. A pious fiction, but a fiction all the same.

Unlike the holding up of the Puritans as apostles and prophets of religious liberty. That is an outright lie, and downright pernicious.

Every year, I give thanks that they left England. If we must have Black Friday, then we ought to precede it with that Thanksgiving.

As it is, our cultural relationship with the United States is perfectly encapsulated by the fact that we have managed to adopt Black Friday but not any form of Thanksgiving.

We only ever take the bad from America, never the good.