Black Friday 2022 is here: All you need to know about the shopping festival and its 'lawless' legend

It is Black Friday today (25 November 2022) — a day observed after Thanksgiving is celebrated in the United States of America.

What is Black Friday?

The day is marked as a day for shopping. While it was earlier observed only in the USA, where shoppers would raid the online and offline stores for great deals and best discounts ahead of the holiday season, by 2013 the trend started catching up all over the world, including India.

Black Friday sale marks the beginning of shopping for Christmas and New Year — the holiday season in the West. It is the yearly shopping event in the US that begins on the Friday after Thanksgiving and usually ends on the next Monday, known as Cyber Monday.

Black Friday deals in India

The Black Friday India deals in India in 2022 are on brands like H&M, Zara, Adidas, and Apple. H&M, Adidas, and Apple, which barely offer any markdowns through the year, are offering some stunning discounts anywhere up to 60%.

Why do we call Black Friday?

The legend and naming of Black Friday have various myths shrouding it. While some believe that this was the day registering profits — which were marked in black ink, as opposed to the losses which were marked in red ink – others say that this is a disambiguation of the term ‘Big Friday’. The big business houses in 1961 would describe long queues of shoppers outside their stores and would witness shopping craziness once the public entered the stores. ‘Big’ soon evolved to ‘Black’ as per lore.

Another story goes that the day after Thanksgiving was referred to as "Black Friday" in November 1951 and 1952. This, as per the journal 'Factory Management and Maintenance’, was the earliest known use of the term "Black Friday". It was so because of the practice of workers calling in sick on the day after Thanksgiving, in order to have a four-day weekend.

Again, this usage also does not appear to have caught on.

However, the true story of naming the day thus originates from Philadelphia and has very less to do with shopping. The phrase "Black Friday" was first used in the 1950s by Philadelphia's police departments. The day, for the policemen, marked one that characterised the chaos which followed Thanksgiving. A football game held during the weekend following the festival would further draw hundreds of suburban tourists into the city, increasing the chaos among revelers. The weekend was then characterised as “Black Friday” and “Black Saturday” by the Philadelphia police department.

The name stuck and the use of the phrase spread slowly. It was first used in media by The New York Times on November 29, 1975, in which it still refers specifically to "the busiest shopping and traffic day of the year."

It might be a good time for you to make the most of those discounts offered by stores — online and offline — to make up for the discounts you might have missed out on during the festival season in India.