by US Staff (Fri Nov 27, 2009)
Today is Black Friday in the States. That means the day after
Thanksgiving when Christmas shoppers throughout the country get up at 4am and
bombard stores to get first dibs on the door-buster deals that retailers are
offering in the lead up to the Christmas holiday.
It got me thinking. Why do they call it Black Friday? It's a good
day - right? Gathering gifts for your loved ones. Injecting giant amounts of
cash into a sagging economy. Singing Christmas carols while you wrestle this
year's hot toy out of the cold dead fingers (ok, not really dead) of your
shopping competitors.
I decided to do a little research to see if this ‘black' adjective
was applied to any other day of the week in the hope of figuring out the
underlying meaning of Black Friday.
Black Monday: October 19, 1987 when stock markets around the world
shed from 20% to almost 50% of their value in a single day - still the largest
percentage losses to date.
Black Tuesday: There are two Black Tuesdays as far as I can tell. The
stock market crash of October 1929 and the Tasmanian bush fires in Australia on
7 February 1967.
Black Wednesday: For the UK, this means 16 September 1992 when the
Conservative government was forced to remove the pound from the European
Exchange Rate Mechanism because it was so devalued.
Black Thursday: There seems to be several of these including more bush
fires in Australia, excessive losses of life for Britain and the Allies during
WW II, a credit crash in Moscow and riots in Guatemala.
Black Friday: Well, that is what we are discussing here - the day
after Thanksgiving in the US.
Black Saturday: Once again, there are quite a few. The Aussies have an
excessive amount of bush fires. France gets in the mix with the day when most
people go on holiday (guessing it takes place in August) and then there is more
death and destruction in Scotland and Beirut, and another currency crisis - this
time in Hong Kong.
Black Sunday: Aussie bush fires again.
So this proved a pointless exercise. It seems that ‘Black' days of
the week are about crisis, death and, of course, if you are Australian, fire.
But wait! One quick look at Wikipedia and there it is in, erm, black
and white. It is the day when retailers go from being in the ‘red' of losses to
being in the ‘black' of profits.
Good for them and bad for us I guess - our own small financial
crisis.
But at least nothing is burning down.
