Black Friday 2022 : The Real History Behind Black Friday
In the 1980s, Black Friday’s lore as it is now known, first appeared.
What is the origin of the term “Black Friday”?
Contrary to popular belief, the phrase “Black Friday” does not originate from the word “black,” which instead refers to “making a profit; not exhibiting any losses.” Black has always been associated with tough economic times rather than times of tremendous business success. After railroad entrepreneur James Fisk and banker Jay Gould sought to dominate the gold market in 1869, a financial panic ensued, leading to the market’s crash and the first Black Friday. A little more than 60 years later, on October 29, 1929, the Great Depression officially began with the Black Tuesday stock market catastrophe.
The phrase “characterised by calamity or misfortune” is how the term “Black Friday” came to be used after Thanksgiving. The term “Black Friday” was first used by manufacturing managers in the 1950s because so many of their employees chose to feign illness in order to prolong the holiday weekend.
About ten years later, Philadelphia traffic officers began referring to the day following Thanksgiving as Black Friday because they had to perform 12-hour shifts in horrendous traffic. Numerous holiday shoppers descended upon the city, and occasionally this hectic shopping day coincided with the annual Army-Navy football game. Philadelphia’s shoppers and business owners started using the phrase, and it quickly spread across the country.
In the 1980s, Black Friday’s lore as it is now known, first appeared. The expressions “in the black” and “in the red” are frequently used in business to denote gains and losses, but this interpretation for one of the biggest shopping dates of the year didn’t emerge until the 1980s, some 20 years after the term “Black Friday” had become commonplace.
Was an early Thanksgiving always something that retailers hoped for?
The Retail Dry Goods Association told Franklin Roosevelt in 1939 that retail sales would plummet if the holiday season didn’t start until after Americans observed Thanksgiving on the customary final Thursday in November. Ever the iconoclast, Roosevelt decided to shift Thanksgiving up by a week as a quick fix to this issue. Roosevelt changed the date of Thanksgiving from its customary day of November 30 to the next-to-last Thursday in November, which immediately added an extra week to the holiday shopping season.
Roosevelt didn’t make the news until the end of October, by which time the majority of Americans had already booked their vacations. When the fake holiday was introduced, many revolted and continued to observe Thanksgiving on its “true” date, mockingly referring to it as “Franksgiving.” Some state governments observed both Thanksgivings since they weren’t sure which one to observe. It was, in a word, a bit of a mess.
But by 1941, the uproar had subsided, and Congress passed a legislation making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November, irrespective of how it might affect the shopping day that would later be called Black Friday.
