Black Friday

Black Friday is a name used for two unrelated occasions. It is now most popularly used in the US to refer to the day after Thanksgiving, which is often considered the first day of the holiday shopping season and is known for featuring discounts from retailers.

The name Black Friday is also used to refer to September 24, 1869, the date of a financial panic in the US sparked by gold speculators.

When it refers to the Friday after Thanksgiving, Black Friday is often characterized as frenzied or chaotic, with many criticizing it as an example of consumerism and overcommercialization.

Black Friday is always the Friday after Thanksgiving, which is always the fourth Thursday in November.

In 2023, Black Friday is November 24. In 2024, Black Friday is November 29.

The first widespread use of the term Black Friday was in reference to a financial panic that began in London on May 11, 1866. The name was used again for Friday, September 24, 1869. On that day, a scheme by stock manipulators Jay Gould and James Fisk to corner the gold market instead caused its collapse. The word black was used in the sense of “marked by disaster or misfortune.” It was used this way in the names of other days, including Black Tuesday (October 29, 1929, the day of the market collapse that marked the start of the Great Depression) and Black Monday (October 19, 1987, the day the stock market experienced its greatest fall since the Great Depression).

The name Black Friday has been used to refer to the day after Thanksgiving since at least 1951. The origin of the name is often explained as a reference to the use of black ink to record business profits, but this was not its original sense. In the 1960s, the term was often used in reference to how bad the traffic was on that day. The earliest known reference, though, is in reference to workers falsely calling in sick on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

What are some terms that often get used in discussing Black Friday?

• Thanksgiving
• holiday season
• sales
• shopping
• crowds
• retail
• consumerism
• Cyber Monday

Black Friday is now most commonly used in the US and other places as the name for the day after Thanksgiving, which is considered the biggest shopping and sale day of the year and the opening of the holiday shopping season. It’s often criticized as an example of consumerism and overcommercialization.

I can’t wait for Black Friday deals 😭

— Shay butter ✨ (@_ShaayBabbyyy) October 5, 2021

Best Buy CEO Corie Barry: We are doing everything to avoid Black Friday crowds https://t.co/pVrmAWoy7S by @BrianSozzi #YahooAMS pic.twitter.com/ROLMoOOmie

— Yahoo Finance (@YahooFinance) October 26, 2020

Just worked my first Black Friday. It reminded me why I never go shopping on Black Friday.

— Stevie Buck (@sbuck10) November 24, 2018

True or False?

Black Friday always falls on the day after Thanksgiving.