Life & English: Black Friday

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States. The Thanksgiving Day is the fourth Thursday of November and the Black Friday is the four Friday of November.

Black Friday is not an official holiday, but some states observe "The Day After Thanksgiving" as a holiday for state government employees. Many non-retail employees and schools have both Thanksgiving and the following Friday off, which, along with the following regular weekend, makes it a four-day weekend, thereby increasing the number of potential shoppers. It has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year . The earliest evidence of the phrase Black Friday applied to the day after Thanksgiving in a shopping context suggests that the term originated in Philadelphia, where it was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic that would occur on the day after Thanksgiving.

Black Friday weekend

Black Friday is a shopping day for a combination of reasons. As the first day after the last major holiday before Christmas, it marks the unofficial beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Additionally, many employers give their employees the day off as part of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Recent years have seen retailers extend beyond normal hours in order to maintain an edge or to simply keep up with the competition. Such hours may include opening as early as 12:00 am or remaining open overnight on Thanksgiving Day and beginning sale prices at midnight.

Now, online sale is developing. People can buy everything by online, therefore, many shops are not busy as before. Black Friday is an opportunity for online shopping, too.

Quy Minh