Black Friday is a special shopping day that comes after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. It is also called the day after Thanksgiving and sometimes the Friday following Thanksgiving. The name Black Friday stems from the fact that people find so many bargains and deals that they get “in the black”, or in profit, for the rest of the year.
Black Friday has become a major shopping day in the United States and is now observed by retailers in other countries. It is specifically important to the U.S. economy because it boosts retail sales significantly and prepares the way for the Christmas shopping season.History of Black FridayThe origin of the name Black Friday is not clear, but most believe that it comes from the fact that it was once the day in which many people were in the black, or in profit, at the end of their fiscal year (the last day of October) and thus had to close their books. Another possible source of the name is from Philadelphia police officers who used to call it Black Friday when they had to work on it. Some think that it could have been derived from the 1929 stock market crash. A few think that it refers to the fact that workers are “in the black” and thus don’t have to work in the days after Thanksgiving.In 1869, a reporter from the New York Tribune was interviewing some of the workers in a store on a busy shopping day. He commented that they were having a “black Friday”. Soon, the term was used by other retailers to describe a busy shopping day.
The term Black Friday has also been used to refer to a negative effect, such as an economic downturn or tragedy.The first use of Black Friday to describe a major economic downturn occurred in 1869 when it referred to the September 24, 1869 crash of the New York Stock Exchange.
