Black Friday is a big shopping day that happens the Friday after Thanksgiving, mainly known for large, limited-time discounts in stores and online.

Basic idea

• It marks the unofficial start of the Christmas/holiday shopping season in the United States, and has spread to many other countries through retailers’ promotions.

• Shops temporarily lower prices on many products to encourage people to buy, especially gifts like electronics, toys, and clothes.

Why it’s called “Black Friday”

• The term became widely used in the 1960s in Philadelphia, where police used it to describe the heavy traffic and crowds the day after Thanksgiving.

• Retailers later popularized a different explanation: that this is when many stores move from operating “in the red” (loss) to “in the black” (profit) because of the surge in holiday spending.

What happens on that day

• Many retailers open very early, offer “doorbuster” deals, and run big sales through the weekend, often continuing with online-focused discounts on “Cyber Monday.”

• It has become one of the busiest and most important shopping periods of the year for retailers, and economists sometimes look at Black Friday sales as a rough signal of consumer confidence and holiday spending strength.