When is Black Friday 2023? Kick-off to Christmas shopping almost here

The true kick-off to the Christmas shopping season is almost upon us, Black Friday. But how did this frenzied shopping tradition for many start?

The way we shop has changed over the years, but finding a bargain for Christmas has not. The phrase, Black Friday, often conjures up images of people standing in line or staring at their computers waiting for bottom dollar bargains to drop, ready for shoppers to swoop in on or (if you’re older) people pushing their way into stores when they opened up the day after Thanksgiving.

Black Friday wasn’t always about shopping though. Here’s how it started and how it became the kick-off to the holiday shopping season.

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When was the term Black Friday first used?

Black Friday hasn’t always been about shopping.

The first recorded use of the phrase came out of a financial crisis, the crash of the U.S. gold market on Sept. 24, 1869, according to The History Channel.

Why is it called Black Friday?

As for shopping, the term didn’t start coming up until the 1950s in Philidelphia.

Police at the time used the term to describe the utter chaos that ensued the day after Thanksgiving, when shoppers descended on the city and for the tourists that made their way in ahead of the Army-Navy football game that was held on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

The city’s biggest department stores tried to steer away from the negative-sounding name and call it “Big Friday,” but by 1961 Black Friday was a thing, According to History.com.

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Modern Black Friday

The Black Friday shoppers know and love — and friends and families of retail employees have heard horror stories of — didn’t really come to be until the late 1980s. It was then that Black Friday became popularized nationally.

During that time, retailers shifted the narrative of the past.

This is where the narrative of companies being in “the red” (loss of money) and the day after Thanksgiving shopping sending them “into the black” (profits) came about. Many still believe this to be the real origin of Black Friday’s name.

The growth and change in Black Friday has pushed it from the boarders of deals just happening on Friday. Now Cyber Monday, the online shopping event the Monday after Thanksgiving, and Small Business Saturday, which promotes shopping locally that Saturday, have also become staples in American shopping culture.

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