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Black Friday

Black Friday

The day after Thanksgiving

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.

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Tracey (who can't log on!) Report Abuse
Posted Mon Nov 30, 2009 at 5:03 am Reply Delete
In Australia we have the Boxing Day sales. Similar thing - and I've never gone. I can't imagine wanting to go into shops the day after Christmas! Can't imagine anything worse! As for the Black ....day bit, I can vouch for the fact that in Australia we are starting to run out of Black days of the week to remember victims of horrific bushfires.
Posted Mon Nov 30, 2009 at 1:17 am Reply Delete
Never done the black friday thing. Don't have kids so maybe that is part of it - not as long a list of gifts. I think it is the best day - stay on the couch in your pjs and watch movies or bad tv. Never would enter a store in the US on that day!
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