From Winter Solstice to Black Friday

From Building Community to Destroying Civilization in 5 Easy Steps

Photo by John Price on Unsplash

The winter solstice has been celebrated since around 10,000 BC. That's about the time we started organizing is small villages – the beginnings of civilization.

The winter solstice was celebrated around the world by cultures that didn't know any each other at all. In the northern hemisphere the winter solstice was the shortest day of the year, presaging a return to life in the spring. Humanity celebrated life coming back the darkest day of winter.

The celebration of the solstice made it into the traditions and celebrations of most societies as they developed. The ancient Roman calendar marked December 25th as the date of the winter solstice. Does that date mean anything else to you?

When Christianity was fighting to gain purchase in the hearts and minds of people around 2000 years ago, the exact date of Jesus’ birth wasn't really a concern. Historians believe that Jesus’ birth based on the stories in the Bible happened in the summer. The actual date of was formalized as December 25th after Rome adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1582. The Catholic Church chose that date as a marketing ploy. It was way back in the 4th century that the suggestions was made as a way to draw attention to Christianity, by aligning with Pagan religions which celebrated the winter solstice as one of the most important days of the year.

Gifts at Christmas was even older than that. It was part of the Roman celebration of the solstice tied to offering gifts to the Roman God Saturn who was viewed as the God of agriculture who would blush your harvest.

It took about 2000 years, but once capitalism got a hold of this tradition, gift giving at Christmas took off.

I want to set the record straight on something else as well. The Coca-Cola Company did not invent Santa Claus. Saint Nicholas was part of Eastern European lore long before Coca-Cola started and then stopped putting actual cocaine and its beverages. Coca-Cola advertising back in the 30s helped shape the image of Santa we know today. Before that there were many competing ways people saw Santa, or other spirits of Christmas. It's a shame Krampus hasn't taken off like Santa did.

Which brings us to Black Friday. I always thought the term Black Friday originated as the day of the year that businesses get “in the black” and start turning a profit -but that wasn’t the case. That is the way it's spoken of and thought of today but in doing a little research, I found out that the term Black Friday originated in the 1960s police coined the phrase to describe the rowdy tourists and shoppers that ensued the day after Thanksgiving.

And here we are today at Black Friday.

What started out as a way to bring communities together in celebration of the coming life giving bounty from the earth, is now a holiday that celebrates the destruction of that bounty so we can have more material stuff we don’t need, most of which we throw away. Ironic yes. A surprise no. I'm just surprised it took us this long.

1. Communal holiday celebrating the coming bounty of the harvest

2. Religion Co-opting that's right in order to further its own popularity

3. Tradition of giving gifts to celebrate the harvest

4. Capitalism Co-opting that tradition to further its own aims

5. Communal holiday celebrating the over consumption that destroys that community

And the damage done.

Black Friday has become a global phenomenon, with an estimated 50-60% of countries celebrating it in some form.

In 2005, Shop.org’s founder discovered that online retailers experienced a 77% spike in sales following Black Friday. This led to the formation of Black Friday’s sister holiday: Cyber Monday.

In fact, Cyber Monday’s e-commerce sales numbers are roughly 25% higher than those for Black Friday (Statista).

The retail sector generates 25% of the world’s carbon emissions annually, according to Boston Consulting Group — and Black Friday makes its environmental footprint a lot worse.

The amount of waste American households produce between Black Friday and New Year is 25% higher than the rest of the year.

In 2019, a study found that consumers threw away 80% of items purchased on Black Friday after a few uses. Most of these items are destined for landfills, incinerated, or go to low-quality recycling centers.

Degrowth is the answer.

Christmas and Christmas shopping isn’t going away anytime soon. But we are consuming ourselves to death (refer to planetary boundaries and how all of those boundaries in the red are tied to consumption).

It would be helpful to humanity if we realized the true reason for the season. No, not that one, the one before that one.

Christmas coincides with the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. (I’m sorry Southern Hemisphere, but 87% of the word’s population lives North of the equator). The true reason for these celebrations came from a time when we had a much better understanding of our link to the land and our dependence on Nature.

Not to be too much of a hippie here, but stepping back from hyper consumerism for a month, and spending that time restoring nature so that we will be able to celebrate it for millennia to come, might just be the better option.

If we buy 25% more things in December, and throw away 80% of that, what they hell are we doing, other than propping up an economic system so that it can destroy us a little faster.

That isn’t going to change tomorrow. I wrote this essay in two sessions over a Friday night and Saturday after Thanksgiving, and each time I pulled up a browser on my computer, I was inundated with Black Friday deals.

I should change my cookie settings.

Return to our Roots.

Here are some ideas I dug up. You can check out some of the pagan roots of the season, and see if you with to swap any of those out for buying that thing that someone doesn’t want and won’t use. Share your thoughts with the group. Just maybe not this one. Spain, c’mon – what the hell?

I don’t think boycotting giving will happen tomorrow, or do much good. But over time, as we build a stronger community, we could return more to traditions about making Christmas about honoring and restoring nature, not plundering it. Please share your thoughts on how to best do that, and any traditions that you have that could help the rest of us.