Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day
in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping
season. On this day, many retailers open very early, often at 4 a.m., or
earlier, and offer promotional sales to kick off the shopping season, similar
to Boxing Day sales in many Commonwealth countries.
Black Friday
is not actually a holiday, but many employers give their employees the day off,
increasing the number of potential shoppers. It has routinely been the busiest
shopping day of the year since 2005,[1] although news reports, which at that
time were inaccurate,[2] have described it as the busiest shopping day of the
year for a much longer period of time.[3]
The day's name originated in Philadelphia, where it
originally was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle
traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving.[4] Use of the term
started before 1966 and began to see broader use outside Philadelphia around
1975. Later an alternative explanation began to be offered: that "Black
Friday" indicates the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit, or
are "in the black."[5]
Because Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday in
November in the United States, the day after occurs between the 23rd and the
29th of November.
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