I hope your Thanksgiving Day is full of fun, family, and football. It’s all about tradition. Although there is some disagreement on the holiday, what is meant to represent and how it was first celebrated, it’s still a tradition of people getting together to share some food and good times. What can be better?
The History of Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving was first declared a national holiday by President Lincoln in 1863. In December of 1941, the Senate passed a resolution to officially set the observance of Thanksgiving to take place on the fourth Thursday of November each year. We’ve been doing so ever since.
However, it now seems that Thanksgiving Day has come under some fire as it has come to mark the official beginning of the holiday shopping season. It might be called “Black Friday’s Eve.” So where did Black Friday come from?
The History of Black Friday
The first recorded use of the term, Black Friday, was used to identify the financial crash of the U.S. gold market on September 24, 1869. Not a good connotation. However, that is not why we use it today to describe the day after Thanksgiving. More commonly it came into use because it was thought that this is the day that puts most retail stores in the ‘black’; they begin to turn a profit for the year. Maybe…
The truth. Are you ready for this? Here it is…
In the 1950’s, police in the city of Philadelphia (my city) coined this term to describe the day when utter chaos took place as hordes of shoppers, tourists and football fans descended on the city the day after Thanksgiving in advance of the annual Army-Navy football game.
Philly cops were angry they couldn’t get that day off. To make matters worse, they were forced to work extra hours to deal with the additional crowds and related traffic. To add to their problems and headaches, they had to be on the lookout for shoplifters who would try to take advantage of all the confusion created by the crowds and the increased activity in the stores. Thus, the police coined that day as “Black Friday”.
Sometime in the late 1980’s, someone came up with the idea to tie the day to the day when stores got in the black. It was a great marketing strategy to turn a negative connotation into something more positive. Good old American ingenuity.
So to this day, we celebrate Black Friday on the day after Thanksgiving, all on our own; no Congressional mandates; no official holiday observance.
In fact, it’s become so popular it’s morphed into a 4-day event. We now have Black Friday, followed by Small Business Saturday/Sunday, ending with Cyber Monday. To get a jump on all the deals many stores open early and shoppers can head out right after finishing their turkey dinner on Thursday. Wow.
Sad, but I think the term Black Friday may come to describe the day that killed Thanksgiving. I sure hope not.
Don’t let it happen. Spend one day relaxing with family and friends, reflecting on all that is good and be thankful. There’ll be plenty of time for shopping later.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Editor’s Note: We will not be blogging on November 24th so that our bloggers can enjoy time with their families, not talking politics. See you again on November 25th. Happy Thanksgiving!