If you’re living in Canada, you can avoid today’s shopping craziness, die in der U.S. is known as “Black Friday” — the day-after-Thanksgiving, start-of-the-Christmas-shopping-season, mega-sale shopping day.

Hier in Kanada, it’s just a regular work day.

But if you want to take the no-shopping thing one step further, heute Buy Nothing Day.

Originally conceived by Vancouver artist and activist Ted Dave (here’s a brief history of Buy Nothing Day) and now promoted by the Vancouver-based Adbusters organization, Buy Nothing Day is an international protest against consumerism.

Wie sagt Adbusters, “There’s only one way to avoid the collapse of this human experiment of ours on Planet Earth: we have to consume less.”

Von der Adbusters’ Website:

We’re asking tens of millions of people around the world to bring the capitalist consumption machine to a grinding – if only momentary – halt.

We want you to not only stop buying for 24 Stunden, aber zum Absperren Ihre Beleuchtung, televisions and other nonessential appliances. Wir möchten, dass Sie Ihr Auto parken, turn off your phones and log off of your computer for the day.

We’re calling for a Ramadan-like fast. From sunrise to sunset we’ll abstain en masse, not only from holiday shopping, but from all the temptations of our five-planet lifestyles.

In Kanada, gibt es Buy Nothing Day Veranstaltungen in Guelph (ON) und Montreal, but you don’t need to go to an event to honor the day — you can just stay home!

Wollen Sie mehr wissen? Sehen Adbusters’ Buy Nothing Day Campaign oder besuchen Sie die Facebook Buy Nothing Day Event.