The Unexpected History of How 'Black Friday' Got Its Name

2 days ago7 min read2 comments

The term 'Black Friday' has become as ingrained in the American cultural fabric as turkey and pumpkin pie, yet its origins are far murkier and more contested than the orderly lines outside a big-box store. We all know what it is—the chaotic start to the holiday shopping season—but the 'why' behind the name is a fascinating puzzle with several competing, and often contradictory, explanations.The most popular, and frankly sanitized, narrative peddled by retailers themselves suggests the day is when their ledgers finally move 'into the black,' transitioning from loss to profit. It’s a tidy, economic fairy tale, but historical evidence doesn't quite bear it out; the phrase was used in this financial context long before it was glued to the post-Thanksgiving sales frenzy.A much darker, and arguably more credible, theory takes us back to 1960s Philadelphia, where police and bus drivers coined the term to describe the sheer, unmanageable bedlam caused by hordes of suburban shoppers and tourists descending on the city for the annual Army-Navy football game. It was a day of logistical nightmares, overtime, and general misery for anyone in a uniform, a 'black' mark on the calendar.This usage was local and decidedly negative for years, with merchants even attempting to rebrand it 'Big Friday' to no avail. It wasn't until the late 1980s that the more positive 'in the black' spin was widely adopted, a brilliant piece of PR rebranding that transformed a term of dread into one of commercial aspiration.This evolution from a descriptor of urban chaos to a symbol of consumerist triumph is a masterclass in how language can be co-opted and reshaped. It mirrors the journey of other phrases that have been stripped of their original, often negative, connotations for marketing purposes.Digging into this is like a Wikipedia deep dive, uncovering layers of social history, economics, and pure myth-making. The true story isn't a single thread but a tangled knot of regional slang, journalistic adoption, and corporate storytelling, proving that even our most familiar traditions have unexpectedly messy and human beginnings.

#Black Friday

#history

#etymology

#shopping

#retail

#holidays

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