Why Is It Called Black Friday?

Black Friday falls a day after the Thanksgiving. Black Friday is a very special day as the Christmas shopping starts from this particular Friday. This is a very popular day in US. You can see markets filled with shoppers and sellers. Streets, malls, showrooms are all filled with buyers.

Why is it called Black Friday?

It is a day on which many people go out for shopping. The name Black Friday was adopted from 'red ink' (an accounting term) which means a negative profit margin whereas 'in the black' signifies a positive margin line. Thus, on Black Friday, retailers of the market go from loss to profit (in the red to in the black). Black Friday is always celebrated on 23rd November.

According to business

Black Friday comes from a business term. When the business is not profitable enough for the quarter, it is written with red ink or "in red" whereas when the business does more profit than expected, it is written with black ink or "in black". On Black Friday, the market is too crowded with Christmas shoppers. Market sales are very high on this day so it is named as Black Friday.

History

Black Friday is celebrated the day after Thanksgiving. It is an unofficial beginning of the Christmas season since 1930s. This day signifies that Christmas is coming and thus shopping for the holiday and the biggest Christian festival starts from now. The American Philatelist published an advertisement where the name Black Friday was used by the Philadelphia Police Department to describe the traffic jams and chaos that happen in the market after Thanksgiving.

According to a 1961 public relations newsletter in Philadelphia, For downtown merchants throughout the nation, the biggest shopping days normally are the two following Thanksgiving Day. Resulting traffic jams are an irksome problem to the police and, in Philadelphia, it became customary for officers to refer to the post-Thanksgiving days as Black Friday and Black Saturday. Hardly a stimulus for good business, the problem was discussed by the merchants with their Deputy City Representative, Abe S. Rosen, one of the country's most experienced municipal PR executives. He recommended adoption of a positive approach which would convert Black Friday and Black Saturday to Big Friday and Big Saturday.

As the Christmas shopping kicks off from Black Friday, be prepared and active to get smart bargain from stores. Be careful while shopping as the streets will be overcrowded and cases of accidents and violence have been reported on Black Friday.