Whenever the word shopping pops up, we have a wave of happiness crossing our face.
We have a day dedicated to this very spirit of shopping! The Friday after thanksgiving (Fourth Thursday in November), is known as Black Friday.
Consumerism has a religious day called Black Friday : Jarod Kintz.
Why is it called Black Friday?
During the times when documenting the retail data was done on paper, losses were depicted in RED and profits were depicted in BLACK. Since the sales of commodities shoots up during this time, also known as the Christmas season, it is an indication of a profit, that is a shift from RED to BLACK, hence the name!
When did Black Friday start?
Estimates show that the earliest usage of this term was in 1951.
Black Friday History
There are many fancy as well as, not-so-fancy accounts of how black Friday came into existence. Let us see into some of these.
A very popular of these is black Friday slavery.
It is believed that black Friday was a day after thanksgiving, when the slave traders used to sell off the slaves at a discounted prize so that the plantation owners could use them during the winter for various tasks such as cutting and building shelters and such. Unlike the very intense background that this seems, we have no choice but to refute it on the basis of the fact that, slavery was abolished a century before the term black Friday was used!
The Traffic Mayhem!
In 1961, the day after thanksgiving was marked by the roads of Philadelphia getting stomped by huge traffic jams and eventual accidents. This sprouted the term black Friday to depict this unfortunate day.
A day for Shopping Buffs!
In actuality, the workers usually didn’t show up on the Friday that came after thanksgiving and thus, making it a long weekend! Also, since it is the onset of the Christmas shopping spree, It is the most popularly accepted reason of celebrating this day!