ACCENTS

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BY JULIA CARREON-LAGOC
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IN OUR Christian calendar, we have a Good Friday, and never ever is it black. We reflect and pray in the Friday of Lent in anticipation of joyful Easter Sunday. Here in the States is a Friday described as Black (bold for emphasis).

Black Friday is the busiest shopping day in the entire U.S. of A. Days before, newspapers are chockfull of bargain announcements. Chain stores vie for the reputation of having rock bottom prices. National chains announce the start of their Black Friday sale, one opening at 12:00 P.M. midnight of Thursday. Hearken ye, early birds!

Filipinos are said to have the reputation of being great imitators, mostly on the cultural fringe. Perhaps, in the enclave of the elite – plushy subdivisions in the home country – the Halloween “trick or treat” custom has delighted their youngsters. I think I saw you putting snowy cotton balls on the Christmas tree, even kissing Santa Claus, he he.

Okay, we go with the flow on the surface of things. For now, let me take a detour, say uncalled for: Deep down we are excellent in the brains department. For example, my daughter Randy Raissa bested U.S. physicians and those from other countries in her postgraduate internship at the New York Medical Center, an affiliate of Cornell University. Randy was named Best Intern up to becoming Chief Resident. (Kindly indulge this proud mother, dear reader.) And we do excel in brawns and muscles, too. Long live Manny Pacquiao!

Gosh, I’m making a round-about way to what I’m really driving at: Exclude the Americans’ Black Friday in the Filipinos’ days of observance. A Big NO to mall owners who will promote Black Friday in the Philippines. The Pinoys at the base of the social pyramid want job opportunities that would enable them to meet their basic needs – such as three square meals a day, and possibly, continuing steps up in the educational ladder for their children.

But of course, Thanksgiving Day is a must, whether or not the family is Filipino. Celebrated every fourth Thursday of November, Thanksgiving Day is when families get together to give thanks for the blessings, joined by friends and relatives who are separated from their own loved ones because of distance necessitated by occupational ties.. In an American family, dinner is usually served with a plump stuffed turkey on the platter and a pumpkin pie along with a variety of eatables and drinkables. Carbon copy for my daughters’ households here in the U.S. of A.

Year after year, days prior to Black Friday, advertisements would flood the TV and print media about huge discounts on a cornucopia of items that inveigle consumers. Big Business manipulates consumerism to the max with novel ways of enticements. Profit moguls get a nice day running to the bank while shoppers go running, emptying their wallets and credit cards.

I recall a night when my daughter Randy came home from her hospital work with the news that somebody died in the Black Friday scuffle. She didn’t have a clear idea whether the death was brought about by a heart attack in the mad rush for a bargain.

I jotted down this quote, if only to discourage my fellow Pinoys here in the U.S. of A. from joining the Black Friday madness: “On Friday, Nov. 28, 2008, Jdimytai Damour, a worker at a Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, New York was trampled to death by shoppers who broke through the store’s glass doors minutes before the store’s scheduled opening at 5 a.m.; a pregnant mother was hospitalized from injuries in the same human “stampede”, though early reports of a resultant miscarriage were determined to be in error. On that same day, two people in Palm Desert, California were shot and killed in a Toys R Us store during an argument.” What a deadly Black Friday violence.

I don’t know for other Pinoys or those of my close friends and relatives – Stateside or in the home country – but giving thanks, for me, is a daily custom that goes with the night prayersbefore one retreats to slumber land.

A prayerful, peaceful, gratifying night after night to all. (juliaclagoc@yahoo.com/PN)
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