The other meaning of ‘Black Friday’

It is clear to most that “Black Friday” gets its name from the commercial expectation that the millions of dollars of sales on the day after Thanksgiving enables our nation’s merchants now to record their bottom line in black ink indicating profit, instead of the red indicating loss during most of the rest of the year. Yet the commercial development of this shopping spree now suggests a sadder cultural meaning of ‘black,’ as the very early morning beginning of sales has pushed its way back into the dark night before Friday’s dawn, and this year was even extended into the light of day of Thanksgiving itself.

Now the contrast is no longer between red and black, but white and black: white as a symbol of the religious celebration for some, and cultural joy for all, of authentically giving thanks. The darkening of our national day of gratitude may also be seen as an extension of the earlier commercializing of Advent, which long had the purely religious meaning of Christian preparation for the birthday of Jesus, but has become a secularized advent, now beginning with Black Friday and extending through Christmas Eve, for purchasing gifts for almost everyone else.

Would that red might become black for our merchants without the celebrations of our holidays/holy days also being blackened.

James Will

Arlington Heights