# When did the day after Thanksgiving become "Black Friday"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 26, 2008, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-day-after-thanksgiving-become-black-friday/474623 "2008-11-26T23:33:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Roadfood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@Roadfood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadfood)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-day-after-thanksgiving-become-black-friday/474623/1 "2008-11-26T23:33:01Z")
I feel like I’ve just woken up after a few years of sleep. Seemingly all of the sudden (to me, anyway), everyone calls the Friday after Thanksgiving “Black Friday”. I could swear I never heard it called that last year. I know it’s always been the biggest shopping day, and consequently a madhouse for all who dare to venture out, but it’s also the biggest payday for the retailers. So when did it start being called “Black Friday”, and why? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-day-after-thanksgiving-become-black-friday/474623/2 "2008-11-26T23:43:36Z")
Doesn’t answer the question, but the reason it’s called Black Friday is becaused it’s the day that puts many retail businesses in the black (or at least the day that begins the season that does). I’ll take a look for the origins. [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping)): > [@](#): > > ## Although Black Friday, as the first shopping day after Thanksgiving, has served as the unofficial beginning of the Christmas season at least since the start of the modern Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924, the term “Black Friday” has been traced back only to the 1960s. > > Origin of the name “Black Friday” > The earliest uses of “Black Friday” come from or reference Philadelphia and refer to the heavy traffic on that day, an implicit comparison to the extremely stressful and chaotic experience of Black Tuesday (the 1929 stock-market crash). The earliest known reference to “Black Friday” (in this sense), found by Bonnie Taylor-Blake of the American Dialect Society, refers to Black Friday 1965 and makes the Philadelphia origin explicit: > > JANUARY 1966 – “Black Friday” is the name which the Philadelphia Police Department has given to the Friday following Thanksgiving Day. It is not a term of endearment to them. “Black Friday” officially opens the Christmas shopping season in center city, and it usually brings massive traffic jams and over-crowded sidewalks as the downtown stores are mobbed from opening to closing.[7] > > The term Black Friday began to get wider exposure around 1975, as shown by two newspaper articles from November 29, 1975, both datelined Philadelphia. The first reference is in an article entitled “Army vs. Navy: A Dimming Splendor,” in The New York Times: > > Philadelphia police and bus drivers call it “Black Friday” - that day each year between Thanksgiving Day and the Army-Navy game. It is the busiest shopping and traffic day of the year in the Bicentennial City as the Christmas list is checked off and the Eastern college football season nears conclusion. The “in the black” came later than the initial traffic related nickname apparently. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-day-after-thanksgiving-become-black-friday/474623/3 "2008-11-27T00:01:34Z")
> [@Roadfood](#): > > I feel like I’ve just woken up after a few years of sleep. Seemingly all of the sudden (to me, anyway), everyone calls the Friday after Thanksgiving “Black Friday”. I could swear I never heard it called that last year. I know it’s always been the biggest shopping day, and consequently a madhouse for all who dare to venture out, but it’s also the biggest payday for the retailers. So when did it start being called “Black Friday”, and why? Well, like a lot of events, I’d say the coverage and hype of Black Friday is a result of 24 hour news channels and business channels. Since the short Thanksgiving week is usually short on hard news, Black Friday and news reports on “The Worst Christmas ever” became common. ---
**Author:** ![Priam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/77aa72/32.png) [@Priam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Priam)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-day-after-thanksgiving-become-black-friday/474623/4 "2008-11-27T00:03:49Z")
Sampiro’s got it right. I’ve heard it used for several years by retail-working friends who dread and loathe that day. I think it’s only been the past couple-to-three years when the term started getting applied in public without a pejorative sense to it. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-day-after-thanksgiving-become-black-friday/474623/5 "2008-11-27T00:09:48Z")
I’ve actually witnessed fights on Black Friday, usually on limited quantity leader items (“I WAS HERE FIRST!” “WELL I GOT TO IT FIRST!”). I’ve also witnessed more than a few wage slave clerks getting chewed out like they just ran over someone’s kid. I’m guessing that there are fights all over the country that day. I refuse to attend Black Friday sales anymore, not just because of the mobs but because the doorbuster specials are rarely available if you don’t- literally- get there at 2:00 a.m. and wait in line for 6 hours, which I’m just not going to do, and the Internet’s a helluva lot easier and more often than not better prices. ---
**Author:** ![Roadfood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@Roadfood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadfood)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-day-after-thanksgiving-become-black-friday/474623/6 "2008-11-27T00:21:58Z")
> [@](#): > > the term “Black Friday” has been traced back only to the 1960s. “Only”? That means it’s been around for almost my whole life. > [@](#): > > The earliest uses of “Black Friday” come from or reference Philadelphia . . . The term Black Friday began to get wider exposure around 1975 This is better; since I’ve never been to Philadelphia, I can be forgiven for not having heard it for the first quarter of my life. > [@Priam](#): > > I think it’s only been the past couple-to-three years when the term started getting applied in public Now this one I like. I’ve been completely out of touch for only a few years.😉 ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-day-after-thanksgiving-become-black-friday/474623/7 "2008-11-27T04:00:27Z")
It’s only been in the last few years that it has been used as a marketing designation. In fact, I was quite stunned to see our company’s website using it as a designation like Columbus Day or Veteran’s day…Come in For Our Black Friday Specials! What was once the inside-joke reference has become the Official Name Of The Day, apparently. It’s no longer the After-Thanksgiving Sale. Now the public knows it is their responsibility to spend enough to get us out of the red! Today! Now! Open Your Wallet! ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-day-after-thanksgiving-become-black-friday/474623/8 "2008-11-27T05:43:27Z")
I worked at a Ruby Tuesday’s in a mall 20 years ago when I was in college and I heard the term Black Friday then. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-day-after-thanksgiving-become-black-friday/474623/9 "2008-11-27T10:23:23Z")
You can find lists all over the Internet now, but wasn’t there a time when it was considered illegal to post the sales on Black Friday? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-day-after-thanksgiving-become-black-friday/474623/10 "2008-11-27T10:52:55Z")
Roadfood writes: \> I know it’s always been the biggest shopping day . . . Actually, it’s not. The biggest shopping day is usually the Saturday before Christmas: > **[Black Friday (shopping)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping))** > > Black Friday is a colloquial term for the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States. It traditionally marks the start of the Christmas shopping season in the United States. Many stores > offer highly promoted sales at discounted prices and often open early, sometimes as early as midnight or even on Thanksgiving. Some stores' sales continue to Monday ("Cyber Monday") or for a week ("Cyber Week"). > Black Friday has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States. > For ce... ---
**Author:** ![Tammi\_Terrell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Tammi\_Terrell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tammi_Terrell)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-day-after-thanksgiving-become-black-friday/474623/11 "2008-11-27T15:19:17Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > The “in the black” came later than the initial traffic related nickname apparently. There’s something subtle and rather cynical, though, about how we came to the current belief that we acquired “Black Friday” because it puts merchant ledger books “back in the black.” [Philadelphia news sources in the 1980s](http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0804D&L=ADS-L&P=R7698&I=-3)strongly hint that area merchants, wanting to encourage shoppers to descend upon the city and suburban malls, downplayed the already existing, tongue-in-cheek “Black/disaster/frenzy” association (used readily by local cops, transit workers, and cabbies) by providing a more upbeat “black ink” explanation. It was this concerted rehabilitative effort (possibly most strongly put forth by the Philadelphia Center City Association of Proprietors) to remove the negative connotation of “black” and reassure more skittish, crowd-hating shoppers that caused the current understanding of how “Black Friday” originated. – Tammi Terrell ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2008, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-day-after-thanksgiving-become-black-friday/474623/12 "2008-11-29T20:12:41Z")
2006 [Black Friday](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=397469) thread. And a 2002 thread [Black Friday": How long has it been called that?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=147023) with some of Tammi Terrell’s earliest etymological detective work. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2008, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-day-after-thanksgiving-become-black-friday/474623/13 "2008-11-29T20:33:08Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Well, like a lot of events, I’d say the coverage and hype of Black Friday is a result of 24 hour news channels and business channels. Since the short Thanksgiving week is usually short on hard news, Black Friday and news reports on “The Worst Christmas ever” became common. Why would it be shorter on hard news than any other weekend? I mean the Mumbai terrorist attacks dominated the news cycle. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2008, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-day-after-thanksgiving-become-black-friday/474623/14 "2008-11-29T20:51:08Z")
Because only statistically unlikely events would occur on that date. News is very often the result of what government does, and the American government at all levels tends to make very little news over Thanksgiving weekend. No major laws or decisions or announcements or findings. Other than Mumbai, what was on the news the past couple of days? Cameras in malls. Health stories. Feel-good family stories. But no hard news at all.