Black Friday is the biggest retail sales day and the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States. This day follows the Thanksgiving Day holiday. After Black Friday, Cyber Monday is marked which is a 24-hour online shopping event that was created to persuade people to do their shopping online. This is seen as an extension of the Black Friday sales. Black Friday traditionally marks the start of the Christmas shopping season in the United States. As festivities in the US are just around the corner and people are gearing up to shop for these joyous occasions, here’s all you need to know about the history and significance of Black Friday. Thanksgiving 2022 Date in US: Know History, Significance and All About the Day That Celebrates the Blessings of the Past Year in the United States.

Black Friday occurs on the fourth Friday in November unless November 1 is a Friday. The day has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States since 2005. Stores across the US offer highly promoted sales at discounted prices and often open early, sometimes even on Thanksgiving, while some stores continue with their sales till Monday (Cyber Monday) or for a week (Cyber Week).

History of Black Friday

The day after Thanksgiving has been regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the US since 1952. The history of the Black Friday shopping season dates back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries when many Santa or Thanksgiving parades were sponsored by department stores. These included the continuing Toronto Santa Claus Parade in Canada since 1905, originally sponsored by Eaton's, and Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade held in Manhattan, New York City since 1924, sponsored by Macy's.

The department stores used the parades and other events to launch their product and give them a big advertising push. Later, as the advertising and discounts gained popularity on this day, stores tried to offer their products at discounted rates and did Christmas advertising before the parade was over. Therefore, the day after Thanksgiving became the day when the shopping season officially started. As per records, Amazon was the first to offer ‘Black Friday in July’ deals in 2015 on what they called ‘Prime Day.' Amazon repeated the practice in 2016 and 2017, and other companies began offering similar deals.

Significance of Black Friday

Black Friday is not an official holiday in the United States. However, California and some other states observe the day after Thanksgiving as a holiday for state government employees. The South Park neighbourhood of Charlotte, North Carolina, is the most popular area in the United States on Black Friday.

Several online stores invest a lot of money in promotional campaigns to generate more sales and drive traffic to their stores and this festive season gives them the right opportunity. Black Friday marks the unofficial beginning of the Christmas shopping season. It is a shopping day as it is the first day after the last major holiday before Christmas. To take advantage of the long festive weekend, all retailers in the country offer various sales including limited deals to woo customers.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 22, 2022 05:04 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).