Today our American readers are celebrating Thanksgiving. So if that is the case for you, happy Thanksgiving. And, as you may know, this holiday marks the unofficial beginning of the Christmas shopping season, with the clocks already counting down to Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

Yet for some, Black Friday has a starkly different meaning - Buy Nothing Day. Buy Nothing Day, this year officially celebrated tomorrow in North America and Saturday the 24th internationally, is an informal protest against consumerism.

 

Buy Nothing Day was originally founded by Vancouver artist Ted Dave in September 1992, and subsequently moved to the Friday after Thanksgiving. Since then, the date promoted by Canadian Adbusters Magazine has gained international notoriety and is now being celebrated in over 65 countries worldwide.

The typical actions that take place vary from from relaxed family outings, to free, non-commercial street parties, to politically charged public protests. Anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending.

In past years, street activists have proven particularly imaginative in their celebrations, bringing zombie marches, credit-card cut-ups, and shopaholic clinics to malls and public squares in an effort to expose the environmental and social consequences of First World over-consumption.

Kalle Lasn is the co-founder of the Adbusters Media Foundation, the organization responsible for launching Buy Nothing Day as a yearly, global event. He explains that while most participants used to see the day simply as an escape from the marketing mind games and frantic consumerism that have come to characterize modern life, the focus has since shifted in light of the new political mood surrounding climate change.

"So much emphasis," he notes, "has been placed on buying carbon offsets and compact fluorescent lightbulbs and hybrid cars that we are losing sight of the core cause of our environmental problems: we consume far too much."

"Buy Nothing Day isn't just about changing your routine for one day. It's about starting a lasting lifestyle commitment. With over six billion people on the planet, it is the responsibility of the most affluent – the upper 20% that consumes 80% of the world's resources – to set out on a new path." - Adbusters Buy Nothing Day Press Release 2007

So, this Black Friday (Saturday Internationally), it is really that simple. All you have to do is participate by NOT participating. And happy Not-Shopping Day, everyone.