User Comments

1. 

   12/06/08

   wherethehellwasi

   In America, it's the day where unruly mobs of people descend on shopping malls at an ungodly early hour in the morning, and froth themselves into a spending frenzy to collect presents to give away on the day when it was collectively decided that the birth of some carpenter guy who lived a couple thousand years ago should be commemorated.
   
   This follows the day on which many thousands of ugly birds and innocent cans of cranberry-like sauces are sacrificed to celebrate the time when a bunch of people who really liked that carpenter guy sailed to America to have dinner with the natives, and nobody had died from hypothermia, smallpox or gunshot wounds. Yet.
   
   Of course, I'm always too sentimental about these sorts of things.

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2. 

   12/06/08

   dotartdude

   The day after Thanksgiving in the United States - the busiest shopping day of the year - for Christmas, that is.
   
   en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping)

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3. 

   12/06/08

   CrankyChick

   The day after Thanksgiving (holiday) when people believe that there are these unbeliavable sales that they get up early and go to the stores just as they open on that Friday to shop for Christmas gifts.

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4. 

   12/06/08

   Norski

   The Friday after Thanksgiving in America is called "Black Friday," because that is considered to be the day when a typical retail business will stop operating 'in the red,' with expenses greater than income, and start operating 'in the black,' with income greater than expenses.
   
   There's a pretty good discussion of the term, in that sense, at ( 74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:ijKz4fGxNW4J:www.jmu.edu/sbdcenter/Journal%252... ).
   
   The actual day when a business starts turning a profit during a calendar year may come at any point - or not at all, of course. However, in American culture, buying habits make late November and all of December the time when most retail businesses start making more than they spend.
   
   There are quite a few other things that "black Friday" means, including one that's almost the opposite of the more common meaning.
   
   Americans who are involved in financial matters may use "black Friday" to mean a sharp loss in financial markets ( www.tiaa-crefbrokerage.com/invest_glosry_BfBo.htm ).

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   1. 

      12/06/08

      Anok

      Yup, and in regular use by retail workers, "Black Friday" means - "Oh, crap I'll stock up on my aspirin now for when my hangover starts from all the excessive drinking I'll need to do to get through this godawful day".
      
      Or, "I promise I won't punch a customer in the face like I did last year boss"
5. 

   12/09/08

   kirat92

   You know what's funny, in India Black Friday is associated with a very bad day, the day of the 1993 Mumbai blasts.
   In fact, whenever the stock market loses too much in a day, the newspapers call it Black Monday/Wednesday/Friday... there is a movie, Black Friday about the blasts in Mumbai.
   
   Cultural differences, neat.

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6. 

   12/09/08

   ekim941

   It's a double edged sword. It's a day of shopping where prices are extremely discounted and shoppers can save huge amounts of money on their purchases.
   
   It's also a good example of how much shoppers get gouged on retail markup the other 364 days of the year.

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7. 

   12/09/08

   aningeniousname

   It's the day of Obama's inauguration.

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