There are many official holidays in the USA and around the world, but there are few unofficial holidays that have captured the attention of shoppers like Black Friday. The typical Black Friday celebration is not like many holidays where people watch parades, gather with family over a meal, or open presents. Instead, Black Friday is a day filled with crowded shopping malls, discounted prices, and traffic jams where millions of people take off work and leave their homes to go shopping.
Here’s Your Black Friday Stuff:
Date
In 2022, Black Friday falls on November 25.
The actual Black Friday date changes from year to year because it directly follows Thanksgiving which is the fourth Thursday of every November. Therefore, unlike New Years’ Day, which is January 1st every year for example, Black Friday is always the Friday that immediately follows Thanksgiving.
Today, most businesses allow their employees off on the Friday after Thanksgiving, if only to provide a four-day weekend, so they can go shopping for Christmas presents. It should be noted that Cyber Monday, which is the first Monday following Black Friday, is celebrated for online shopping. It’s quite common for millions of people to head out to the stores on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, only to finish their shopping online thanks to Cyber Monday.
Deals
Even before it became the biggest single shopping day of the year, the Black Friday celebration has included many great deals on all types of products. Most of the deals generally focus on items associated with gifts, such as toys, devices, jewelry, and the like. The bargains are considerable because they are designed to induce even more purchases.
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The good news is that many deals on Black Friday will be posted well in advance. Whether in advertising supplements in the paper, radio or television ads, or online at your favorite shopping sites. By taking advantage of the discounts provided, it helps to bring in even more people to the stores when they open for Black Friday sales.
Although the internet has managed to make its presence felt when it comes to cutting in on the Black Friday sales event, it is still the biggest shopping day of the year.
Meaning
Black Friday is a day when people all across the USA and around the world take the day off to go shopping for presents in preparation for Christmas. With only four weeks from Thanksgiving to Christmas, Black Friday is considered the kickoff of the shopping season. It is also seen as a marker of consumer confidence, demonstrating the ability that consumers have to spend their money on buying gifts. A poor Black Friday sales day is one that usually denotes issues with consumer confidence in the economy.
Interestingly enough, many Black Friday sales events at stores actually begin on Thursday during Thanksgiving. This is in part due to the relatively limited amount of time from Thanksgiving to Christmas, but also because most Thanksgiving festivities are over after the turkey is served, which is usually during lunch hours. Because the afternoon is generally free of activities, more stores are now opening their doors on Thanksgiving to provide customers with more opportunities to shop.
History
To understand what is meant by Black Friday in USA, it is important to understand the spread of department stores in the early to mid-20th century which changed the shopping habits of millions of people, especially in large cities.
Although it had been a common practice in the US to take off work and go shopping the day after Thanksgiving, the use of the term “Black Friday” was first applied in the journal, Factory Management and Maintenance, in November 1951 and subsequently the following year as well. The terms was used to describe the number of people who would call in sick to work to go out shopping on that day and to create a four-day weekend.
The term itself did not really catch on until a decade later when the police in the cities of Rochester and Philadelphia used both Black Friday and Black Saturday to describe the traffic congestion and the crowds at the department stores. There was an attempt to rename it “Big Friday” along with “Big Saturday”, but both terms were quickly ignored, and Black Friday remained. However, the term Black Saturday has faded from the national conscious.
Interestingly enough, Black Friday was not always the biggest shopping day of the year. In fact, for many years Black Friday was the fourth or fifth biggest shopping days behind the Saturdays and Sundays of December that preceded Christmas. Until 2003, the final Saturday before Christmas was the biggest shopping day of the year. However, Black Friday took over that spot and has yet to relinquish it since.
Although it arguably started in the US, Black Friday has spread to many other countries as well, particularly those that celebrate Christmas.
It should be noted that Black Friday is not without controversy. The mad rush when stores open combined with traffic jams and poor crowd management usually lead to a few people getting injured. It also makes it difficult for the staffs at stores to adequately treat all customers given the number of people that are shopping.
Still, it is a day that many people do celebrate and come to the stores with the idea of getting the best bargains.
Celebrations
Although not a typical day of celebration, such as the parades that are present for New Years’ Day or St. Patrick’s Day for example, it could be said that Black Friday is a celebration of shopping and the Christmas spirit.
It’s also a time when people celebrate being with friends and family as they go shopping. It’s common for millions of Americans to get together and go to the same stores to share the experience of being with each other. Of course, it helps that they are also sharing the joy of finding the perfect gift for their loved ones or at least themselves, but that is what Black Friday is all about.