The days after Thanksgiving have become the unofficial start of the sales extravaganza that is the Christmas holiday season. Black Friday deals lure out thousands, if not millions, of people at the wee hours of the morning to make good on insanely low prices for all of the stuff that they “need” for the holiday.

But this past Black Friday did something that was nothing short of unforgivable.

On other years, Black Friday has started the the morning after Thanksgiving. This usually gave employees a chance to get some rest before going to work and dealing with the feeding-frenzy. That’s how it should be.

This year, however, many companies encouraged their employees to come into work on Thanksgiving Day to open that evening or to prepare for extremely early morning openings. Black Friday essentially bled into Thanksgiving Day, ripping people away from their vacation to come to work. That’s not right.

Thanksgiving is supposed to be a time to rest, relax and spend time with family. People shouldn’t have to be forced to leave prematurely to come to work and deal with the madness of a sale-crazy mob. For students this can be especially galling. We work as hard as anyone else, and oftentimes have to work multiple jobs to help cover their financial responsibilities.

For many, the Thanksgiving holiday is a time to recharge; a time to forget about schoolwork for a while to focus on other obligations.

It should not be interrupted, mid Thankgiving Day, to prepare for Black Friday.

Black Friday should never seep into Thanksgiving ever again.