As Thanksgiving approaches next week, many of us are looking forward to the holiday, but many of us look forward even more to the day after the big feast, Black Friday. Even though Thanksgiving is about giving, who doesn’t like to get great deals the day after? Many of us love the day because we get great deals and amazing prices.

How and why did Black Friday start?

Black Friday today is considered the official start of the holiday shopping season. There are many myths and different stories as to why we have this tradition. 

Some say the holiday was originally not implied as a post Thanksgiving-day shopping, but to help the financial crisis in 1869. On September 24, 1869, two notorious Wall Street financiers, Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, tried to buy as much of the nation’s gold, hoping to drive up the price high. But, this sent the stock market to crash. This led Wall Street financiers to bankrupt farmers.

Another myth to the tradition with an ugly twist is that in the 1800s Southern plantation owners could buy enslaved workers for a discounted price the day after Thanksgiving. This has led to some calls for boycott in past years, but there is no real evidence that this is true.  

But, the real history behind the tradition isn’t as interesting as you may think. The term was created by police in Philadelphia in the 1950s, to describe the chaos that ensued the days after Thanksgiving.  Tourists and shoppers fled the streets, causing police to not be able to take the day off and having to work extra long hours to help with crowds and traffic. 

The name ‘Black Friday’ comes from terms that tell us about profit. ‘Red’ is used when stores lose profit and ‘black’ is used when companies gain profit. So, the day after Thanksgiving when stores reach booming records, it is black.