Celebrated on 11/27/2026
Black Friday is not an official holiday but marks the unofficial start of the Christmas shopping season in the United States. The term originally referred to a financial crisis in 1869, but its modern retail meaning emerged in the 1950s in Philadelphia, where police used it to describe the chaotic day after Thanksgiving.
The term "Black Friday" was first used in the 1950s by Philadelphia police to describe the heavy pedestrian and vehicle traffic on the day after Thanksgiving. Shoppers and tourists flooded the city in advance of the annual Army-Navy football game, causing chaos and long shifts for officers. By the 1960s, retailers attempted to rebrand it as "Big Friday" to avoid negative connotations, but the term stuck. The phrase gained national prominence in the 1980s when retailers began using it to signify the point when their financial ledgers moved from red (loss) to black (profit) due to holiday sales.
Over the decades, Black Friday evolved from a one-day event into a multi-day shopping extravaganza. In the 2000s, retailers started opening earlier, pushing into Thanksgiving evening and even Thursday morning, leading to the phenomenon of "Gray Thursday." The rise of e-commerce gave birth to Cyber Monday, extending the shopping period. Today, Black Friday features massive discounts, doorbuster deals, and long lines, with many stores offering online sales that begin weeks in advance. The event has also spread globally, with countries like Canada, the UK, and Brazil adopting similar sales.
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