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The origins of Thanksgiving

By Sarah Shafaeen

 

Before visiting family, eating delicious food and looking for great deals the next day— trademarks of modern day Thanksgiving— you may wonder where the tradition of Thanksgiving originated from.

According to Pilgrimhall.org, historians agree that the first Thanksgiving occurred sometime in the fall of 1621 and was most likely an unplanned gathering. The Pilgrims were celebrating their first successful harvest when members of the Wampanoag tribe appeared, likely uninvited. According to an article from Smithsonian Magazine, the feast lasted three days and featured a menu with deer, fowl and corn.

A few years before this event, a disease from shipwrecked French sailors swept through New England and killed most of the Wampanoag tribe. The Pilgrims from the Mayflower were essentially living in the remnants of one of their decimated villages. The Natives’ motivations to extend good will towards the settlers was the result of the trade goods brought from Europe. According to history.com, the mutually beneficial relationship extended to the Wampanoag allying themselves with the Pilgrims to gain British goods and protection from warring tribes like the Narragansett, who wouldn’t mess with an ally of their trade partners. The Pilgrims, in turn, looked to the Wampanoag for survival, gaining valuable tricks like using fish for fertilizer to make effective use of their stolen cornfields.

While those may be the origins of modern day Thanksgiving, according to the National Parks Service, the practice of giving thanks dates back to celebrations in Europe involving fasting then feasting after enduring some great hardship. The first recorded Thanksgiving involving Spanish settlers and members of the Seloy tribe breaking bread with salted pork, garbanzo beans and holding Mass in 1565 Florida.

According to historian Melanie Kirkpatrick, Connecticut was the first state to have a Thanksgiving for general, everyday blessings, in 1778. Former President George Washington issued the first presidential proclamation to nationalize the tradition. However, that quickly became controversial, with members of Congress saying the president didn’t have that authority over the states. As a compromise, Washington recommended a day of thanks and sent a copy to every governor requesting, not ordering, the governors to issue their own day of Thanksgiving.

According to politifact.com, the holiday was finally officiated under former President Abraham Lincoln, who proclaimed a national day of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November in large part thanks to an aggressive campaign by magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale.

So, when you finally dig into that slice of rich pumpkin pie, remember all the events that led to the Thanksgiving you celebrate today.

thelegendonline Features, Uncategorized

Black Friday Crime Stats

By Mason Sandoval

It seems the Christmas season starts earlier and earlier every year. It’s gotten to the point where Christmas time literally starts the day after Thanksgiving. As soon as the doors open at a Target or a Walmart, it becomes “every man for himself.” Many have compared it to the stampede from “The Lion King” or “The Hunger Games.”

Theft and violence are everywhere during Black Friday; this can be anything from ripping the tag off of a shirt and then putting it on your bag or shoving someone out of the way to get the last toy on the shelf for your kid to running out the door with a new flat screen TV and knocking out the security guard trying to stop you. Most cases are worse than the latter.

The states with the most crime during Black Friday are Nevada, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee. Crime isn’t exclusive to just these states on Black Friday however. It’s just the most frequent.

Most people think that most theft on Black Friday happens in the store but it’s actually the opposite. While it is worth noting that there is a two percent increase in theft in stores during Black Friday, there is a 28% increase in home burglaries while everyone is at the store as well as an increase in car break ins in the unattended cars in the parking lots. In addition to theft violence is also increased a great deal on Black Friday.

Most violence consists of trampling on others while rushing into the store as the doors open, but this can get deadly.

According to a West Virginian news station, years ago Walter Vance was shopping at a West Virginian Target for Black Friday when he collapsed. The 61 year-old pharmacist had already been dealing with a heart condition, but the chaos of Black Friday didn’t help. When he fell to the ground countless customers did absolutely nothing. In fact, they walked around him on their way to find bargains. Vance was brought to the hospital later, where he died.

Another incident occurred in Long Beach, Calif. According to the Press-Telegram in 2008 a stampede broke out as soon as the doors opened to a Walmart and a woman who was eight months pregnant was knocked over and trampled on, the trampling resulted in the woman’s unfortunate miscarriage.

Even hate crimes occur on Black Friday. One occurred in Jackson, Tennessee in 2012. According to the Jackson Sun, Black Friday was brutal for a woman named Akasha Adonis. The transgender woman and her mom were assaulted by other shoppers as soon as store personnel unlocked the doors to a Kohl’s Department Store. Adonis and her mother were hit by an assailant who pulled out her hair. Most disgustingly, the suspect put his hand in her mouth and tore three teeth out of her gums, breaking her jaw. As Adonis laid on the floor, Kohl’s staff greeted other shoppers until a woman called the cops.

So then what’s a safer alternative to Black Friday? Well, there’s always Cyber Monday where you can find similar deals online on websites like Ebay or Amazon. You could always wait until December to do your Christmas shopping. Lucky for us California is one of the safer states to shop in during Black Friday. However California doesn’t rank in the top ten safest states to shop in so stay safe folks!

thelegendonline Centerspread

Black Friday Origins

By Julian Rosete

 

It all started Sept. 24, 1869, when the word Black Friday was first used, but not in the way we know it as today.

“The term Black Friday was used in the U.S to describe a financial crisis in 1869,” according to Jennie Wood from the New York Times. This financial crisis consisted of two men named Jay Gould and his partner in crime James Fisk who attempted to uphold and buy out the gold market on the New York Gold Exchange. This caused a gold panic across the country, but this is not the reason for those crazy sales on a new television.

The day became known as “Black Friday” after a newsletter from the Philadelphia Public Relations Association in 1961 referred the day as a day to begin the shopping season. They labeled this day as a shopping day because it was defined as the first day of Christmas shopping. This is because the two days after Thanksgiving are considered the busiest shopping days for downtown merchants across the country. These days were then called Black Friday and Black Saturday, but why? The reason for this is that companies are “in the red” meaning regressing in sales all year until that Friday hits their margin goes “in the black” meaning they gain a ton of profit.

Before the 2000’s hit, almost all retailers opened their doors at 6 a.m. to maximize their profit on this day. They then began to realize they can open even when they began to notice customers camping out for the sales. The late 2000’s is when states began to open their doors, at 4-5 a.m.

Retailers began to receive backlash from the people because of the hard labor employees have to go through on this day, but that didn’t stop the companies. In 2013, Walmart decided to open doors in the day of Thanksgiving at 8 p.m. Stores began to follow this and it’s been happening to present day. Till this day debates still arise on if stores should be open on the day of Thanksgiving because of Black Friday.

Some alternatives names that could have changed the name we all know today is when a deputy of Philadelphia felt that the name Black Friday and Black Saturday was considered to give a negative outlook on this shopping day. Deputy Abe S. Rose recommended to change the name to Big Friday and Big Saturday to make the day seem more positive. This idea was shot down when the New York Times decided to refer to it as Black Friday, making it official to what we all know as today

thelegendonline Features, Uncategorized

Sales stats

By Mansi Patel

 

Pushing, shoving, scampering and scrambling isn’t the first thing that comes into mind when thinking of Black Friday. Black Friday is known as the biggest shopping event of the year, with millions of people coming out to shop in stores or staying in the comfort of their homes and shopping online. Over the years, with a rising population in the US, there have also been more shoppers and an increase in sales in stores nationwide.

Throughout the years, shopping in stores has become less and less popular, and staying at home in the comfort of your bed and not having to wait in long lines has become more popular. According to CNNMoney, there was a two percent decrease in in-store traffic on both Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday compared to the previous year. This is probably due to how easy of an access shopping online has become for younger generations. According to the National Retail Federation, approximately 51.6 million people went to shop in stores, 58.4 million people shopped online and 64.6 million people shopped both online and in stores on Black Friday.

Over the last few years, more people are buying items ranging from jewelry to Instant Pot to Amazon Echo Dot. According to Adobe Systems Inc., online sales in 2017 rose by a shocking 18% that year alone, resulting in the total sales to be a whopping $7.9 billion between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. Adobe also claimed that mobiles accounted for about 47.4% of all online shopping traffic in the U.S. in 2017. That is approximately a 39% increase from the previous year. According to the National Retail Federation, they suspect that sales will increase another 4.1 percent this year. Overall, every year there has been an increase in sales on Black Friday except in 2008 due to the financial crisis.

Last year, according to Amazon, their top-selling items were the Amazon Echo Dot, the Fire TV Stick with Alexa voice remote, the TP-Link smart plug, the Instant Pot DUO80 8-quart seven-in-one multiuse programmable pressure cooker and the 23andMe DNA test.

Americans aren’t the only ones celebrating Black Friday and Cyber Monday. According to research for discount shopping site vouchercodes.co.uk carried out by the Centre for Retail Research, shoppers in the UK spent approximately £7.8 billion between Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2017. Right behind is Germany which spent £5.7 billion online and in-store, and France which spent £4.7 billion.

With Black Friday coming around the corner, sales are expected to increase, specifically those online. On Fri., Nov. 23, take this once-in-a-year opportunity to go out or stay at home and get some shopping done for the season!

 

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Complaining About Thanksgiving

By Lawrence Pei

 

Thanksgiving can be best described as the day where families get together to scream at one another with their mouths full of food and attempting to show their distaste over another’s actions over the course of days, weeks, and years. As family members begin to pile into the living room, oftentimes they will turn on one another over differences in viewpoints varying from political to touchy subjects. It seems like even a common opener intended to start small talk inevitably becomes a screaming match.

The reason for Thanksgiving is written in the name, to be thankful. However, many people have trouble with this due to hardships in life. When looking back at your day, week, or year, one can’t help noticing all the bad things in life as well. When life gets out of control, it’s hard to see the good through the bad.

With Thanksgiving being one of the biggest holidays, families all rush to the nearest grocery store in anticipation for the upcoming event. However, as they gather for the feast, it turns out that even with all the gluttony, much is still left following seconds, thirds, and occasionally even fourths. Even as family members attempt to give their best Homer Simpson impressions, much food still goes to waste to the point where the trash can inside our homes become a graveyard for meat, veggies and dessert. Instead, we should focus not on attempting to gorge ourselves to death, but to think about places in the world where people have a lack of food to survive, and hold back in trying to stuff oneself.

In conclusion, with Thanksgiving right around the corner, it is crucial that we reflect upon both the good and the bad things that occur in our lives. In our age, we all face our own challenges that requires help with others. However, while we should remain thankful for family and friends, their belief that their criticism can positively benefit us is incorrect and only causes things to get worse. Subsequently, instead of solely being focused upon one side of the extreme, the concept of Thanksgiving should not be focused upon the good and bad but the events that happen in our lives and how we can benefit from them.

thelegendonline Cultural Corner, Uncategorized

VSA practices for MAYS

By Nghi Nguyen

 

VSA (Vietnamese Student Association) practices their performances for MAYS (Mid Autmun Youth Festival) which happened last Saturday at Mount Pleasant High School. As mentioned in October’s issue, VietAYA (Viet-American Youth Association) hosts the festival every year for VSAs from high schools in the East Side Union High School district to bond and compete through various activities.

“We are having a ribbon fan and a regular fan dance. The ribbon fan dance is typically for officers and the fan dance is for members,” says VSA President Maggie Nguyen.

The ribbon fan dance is influenced by the song “Như Hoa Mùa Xuân” sung by Hồ Ngọc Hà, Thủy Tiên, Minh Hằng, while the fan dance is guided by the song “Em Trong Mắt Tôi” by Nguyễn Đức Cường. Both of these songs are able to represent commonly played songs in the Vietnamese community.

“It’s me and Isabella’s first year as choreographers for MAYS, so the way we created our dances has a different vibe formt the past choreographers. We’re going for an upbeat and fast kind of vibe. We also want to showcase traditional Vietnamese dances and all the hard work that was put into our dances,” states Co-Cultural Chair Carolyn Le.

These dance performances provide snippets of what traditional Vietnamese dances are, while still showing VSA’s own unique flare. Through their hardworking performances, VSA hopes others are able to have a greater appreciation for Vietnamese culture.

“We’re excited about being able to bond with each other through this experience because performing is such an amazing thing, and the thrill of being on stage is breathtaking. We want VSA to grow as a club, and we’re hoping to be more connected to each other,” comments Club Representative Christine Do.

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CSF’s holds Pie Bake before Break

By Harleen Kaur

“Well there’s this smell when you come in and it just smells like pie and it gives you such a great feeling especially when we drop off the pies” states CSF (California Scholarship Federation) Vice President Grace Shan. CSF held its annual Pie Bake at the PHHS kitchen last Saturday.

“It’s an annual event where members of CSF come together and bake pies for the homeless shelter because we love giving back to the community especially during the season of giving,” states CSF Co-President Jane Tran.

Members of the club sign up for different shifts and show up to the B-2 kitchen to make two pumpkin pies and one fruit pie from scratch with the assistance of the CSF officers.

“When we earn more money and receive more pie filling donations we are able to make more pies,” expressed Grace. The club usually ends up baking around 100-200 pies, but this year they ended up baking a total of 120 pies.

The bake starts at 8 a.m. with the arrival and set up done by the CSF officers. Members of CSF come during their designated shifts and leave after making their pies. By 4 p.m. when all the shifts are over and the officers start to clean up, two members will take all the pies and drive to the local homeless shelter to hand out the pies made by the students.

“CSF does not donate money directly to a charity instead what we do is that we use our funds to make these events where the school can donate to the charity and I think that’s something really special about CSF,” explained Grace.

This pie bake is one of the big events CSF holds every school year. Many of the members and officers enjoy coming together to help make these pies for the homeless.

“The pie bake is definitely one of my favorite events for CSF. I love being able to give back to the community and hang out with my friends at the same time” states CSF Junior Rep Kathy Du

“The hardest part about the pie bake is getting up early on a non-school day to come to school and bake,” claimed Grace.

The members of CSF are encouraged and rewarded with 0.5 act of service for every can of pumpkin pie filling they donate to the club.

“The hardest part about the pie bake is getting organized and figuring out the logistics of how many pie tins, pie filling and all that good stuff” admitted Jane.

As the semester is coming to an end, CSF has members re-apply every semester to make sure their grades still meet the requirements. The club hopes to see more new faces to join the club as the new semester approaches.

thelegendonline News

ARKin’ Downtown

by Katie Tran

“ARKin’ Downtown allows members to recognize the true meaning of kindness because we venture out in Downtown SJ and we step out of our comfort zones to do spontaneous things we wouldn’t do on a regular basis, like serenading or giving a stranger a hug,” says ARK President Janeene Yeh.

On Nov. 4, ARK (Acts of Random Kindness) held their annual event, ARKin’ Downtown. The event took place at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. There was a good amount of attendees, about the same as last year but with some IHS (Independence High School) students joining as well. This is one of the biggest events that ARK holds during the year.

“Anyone can sign up, we gather Downtown to do a bunch of ice breakers and then we split into groups for the scavenger hunt,” explains Publicist Quynh Le.

At the event, ARK prepared icebreakers and activities for their members.  They had a variety of icebreakers to allow members to become acquainted with each other before the scavenger hunt such as ‘The Zoo Game’, ‘I Love My Neighbor’ and ‘The Human Knot.’  These icebreakers all serve different purposes, such as to get the attendees more comfortable with each other and to strengthen their teamwork. Members then separate into groups using lyrics from different Disney songs. They were expected to find their own groups using the lyrics and groups prepared small skits with the song to perform in front of everyone. These same groups then embarked on the main event of the day, the scavenger hunt.

Just like the club itself, the event revolves around showing kindness to strangers. The scavenger hunt wasn’t finding items on a list but rather completing as many tasks as possible in the given time of an hour and a half. Tasks count as varying amounts of points as long as they were videoed or photographed for evidence. Groups with the most points were rewarded fuzzy socks and candy in a mug, which are wrapped and tied with ribbon and have an attached white plush seal keychain.

“Tasks include taking a kawaii photo with your group, holding the door open for someone, telling a pick up line to someone and leaving a note in a book at the library,” says Janeene.

ARK had also set up a big poster in which members wrote nice and encouraging messages on a variety of brightly colored post-it notes that were then stuck onto that poster. The post-it notes are meant for SJSU (San Jose State University) students to peel off and keep while the poster itself contained a bigger message that would be revealed once all post-it notes are taken.

“ARK has been hosting ARKin’ Downtown since 2015 but we’re definitely continuing it for many years to come,” reveals Quynh.

Before the event, the club held a sneak peek scavenger hunt at their regular Thursday meeting. Attendees of the meeting formed groups of five and set off to complete the five activities on the sneak peek scavenger hunt list. The five activities listed were the following: take a picture with a teacher, tell a stranger a pick-up line, take a picture with a spirit week participant, spell out ARK with group members’ bodies and make seal noises with a friend for five seconds. The groups are expected to provide ARK officers with photographic evidence as proof. The group who finishes the quickest wins the pre scavenger hunt and are rewarded half an act.

This is a big activity for ARK because the event itself is meant to help members make friends and memories. Not only do attendees leave the event with new friendships, but they also leave with the satisfaction of knowing that they were able to make someone’s day.

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UNICEF x KEY Club movie night trishatrinh

By: Trisha Trinh

UNICEF (United Nations International Emergency Fund) and Key Club are partnering up to hold a movie night in the Library on Fri.,  Nov. 30. Together, the clubs will be showing The Greatest Showman with an admission of $1.

“The movie night is held to bring our clubs together and provide a fun way to stay active with the club!” says UNICEF Co-President Lilly Liu. The event that will include icebreakers, board games, taking pictures with all the decorations and even the chance to purchase food. It is estimated that 50-60 people going to the event, according to UNICEF Co-Service Director Anna Tran.

UNICEF is a nonprofit organization that assists in recent disasters and problems, but a branch of the group is UNICEF Bay which is more locally-based that Piedmont Hills UNICEF is apart of. UNICEF’s partner, Key Club, is a student-led program run through serving others by acts of community service.

“I think having the movie night is fun way to get people together while also fundraising for both UNICEF and Key club”, says Anna Tran.  Both clubs decided to do a movie night to raise funds on each of the clubs’ projects, while having a fun event for students to enjoy.

The movie will be from 4 p.m.-8 p.m. and everyone is welcome to come join. UNICEF is planning to use the funds from the event to cover any weekly or everyday activities, or their upcoming dance, Snowflake Ball. As for Key Club, they strive for another project of theirs, ELIMINATE, a project that provides vaccines to protect their mothers and children from a disease called MNT (Maternal Neonatal Tetanus), which causes both the mother and child to experience painful spasms.

“So of course it is amazing working alongside all the UNICEF officers! Planning all the decorations and the movie was difficult but made it through (the discussions and voting amongst both clubs). We all work towards our two main goals which is to spreading the unity and love as well as helping to raise money for the ELIMINATE project,” says Key Club Vice President Joann Huynh. Both clubs feels that the event is a great way to bond, while raising money for a good cause.

The movie shown, The Greatest Showman, is about a man that came from nothing rose to create a worldwide spectacle. The movie was chosen because it seemed like a good choice with having action-pact scenes and something for everyone to enjoy, according to both of the clubs.

thelegendonline News

Key club to eliminate MNT

By Christine Do

 

From Oct. 29 to Nov. 2, Key Club hosted their Eliminate Week, in which they promoted the awareness of MNT (Maternal Neonatal Tetanus), a deadly disease that kills newborns and mothers when they are exposed to light and touch. Dance to Eliminate was held last Saturday to celebrate the funds Key Club has raised thus far.

“MNT needs to be known since over 49 million newborns have suffered from this disease since the year 2017 and it can be cured so easily with only 3 doses of vaccine,” states Vice President of Administration Joann Huynh.

As one of Key Club’s main projects, many of the fundraisers have gone to the Eliminate Project, which pays for the vaccines that will protect the mother and pass on immunity to the baby once it is born. A baby is killed every 15 minutes by MNT and a mere $1.30 pays for three doses of vaccines which can save their lives.

“So many mothers and children suffer needlessly from MNT even when there are vaccines out there, so it shouldn’t be able to take lives when it could be cured,” states Treasurer Kathy Ton.

In order to raise awareness for this cause, Key Club hosts MNT Week. Monday is Make-A-Pledge Day where they pledge to eliminate MNT. The club sells MNT pins to support the cause on Tag-It-Tuesday. Wicked Wednesday encourages Key Clubbers to raise money by bringing their Trick-or-Treat boxes to ask for donations as they go from door to door on Halloween day in search of candy.

For Throwback Thursday, Key Clubbers post a baby picture on social media and state a fact about MNT. Finally, on Appreciation Friday, they show love and appreciation to their mothers by through a picture and a few sentimental words on social media.

“After MNT Week, we are hoping that more people are inclined to go to Dance to Eliminate because with funds going to MNT, if they learn about the cause, then they’ll want to support the cause,” says Kathy.

Similarly, Key Club hosts Dance to Eliminate to celebrate the funds that have been raised so far and as another fundraiser to promote the cause. This is a dance in which Key Clubbers have a good time dancing and mingling with each other. They’re able to meet new people while celebrating funds raised for the cause.

With all this fundraising, a huge impact is being made in the lives of those who cannot afford these vaccines. So far in the term, Key Club has raised almost $600 out of their goal of $1,300. By fundraising, those who have donated or helped with the cause have granted countless mothers and their babies protection from MNT. If the goal is reached, Key Club would be able to save over 600 lives.

“Recently, we’ve been able to eliminate MNT from Kenya and the Philippines,” says MNT Coordinator Emily Vu.

In order to raise awareness, Key Club has been talking about MNT during their meetings on Wednesdays at lunch. They have also been doing MNT workshops at DCM (District Council Meetings) that occur every month. In addition, MNT Week and Dance to Eliminate have been able to spread the knowledge about this disease. With these fundraisers, hundreds babies and mothers will be protected from MNT and given the opportunity to live a wonderful life.