How the Date Is Determined
Black Friday is easy to place: it is simply the day after Thanksgiving.
Black Friday is always the day after Thanksgiving. So its date depends on when the fourth Thursday of November falls. It lands between November 23 and November 29. It is not a federal holiday and has no observed-date rule. Still, about half the states give state employees the day off. Many private employers treat it as a company holiday. That is why it often works as a four-day weekend. To find it in any year, first find Thanksgiving and add one day.
History
The name did not start with store accounting. Philadelphia police used "Black Friday" in the 1950s and 1960s. They meant the crush of traffic and crowds that jammed the city between Thanksgiving and the Army-Navy football game. Retailers disliked the negative name. Later they pushed a friendlier story: it is the day stores move from red ink into "the black," meaning profit. That version spread in the 1980s. By the 2000s, Black Friday was regularly the highest-sales shopping day of the year. Its online sibling Cyber Monday was coined by the National Retail Federation's shop.org in 2005.
Traditions and Celebrations
The classic ritual is the early-morning doorbuster. These are limited-quantity deals on electronics, appliances, and toys that once drew overnight lines. The event has since stretched into "Black Friday week" and month-long sales. More buying now happens online. Recent seasons have topped $10 billion in single-day online sales. For a while, stores opened on Thanksgiving evening. Most major chains reversed course around 2020 and now stay closed on the holiday itself. The National Retail Federation counts nearly 200 million shoppers over the Thanksgiving-to-Cyber-Monday weekend. Small businesses answer with Small Business Saturday, launched in 2010.
Planning Around Black Friday
Black Friday bridges Thanksgiving and the weekend, so it is the year's most common informal day off. Schools are closed. Many offices shut or run skeleton crews. Federal employees often use leave to make a four-day break. Banks, post offices, and stock markets stay open, though the markets close early at 1 p.m. Eastern. If you plan to shop in person, check store hours in advance, since openings range from 5 a.m. to normal times. Compare doorbuster prices online first. Many "deals" match prices offered earlier in November.