Shouldn’t it be Golden Friday, Rather than Black Friday in the US?

                                                Shouldn’t it be Golden Friday, Rather than Black Friday in the US?

Thanksgiving, the family celebration on the fourth Thursday of November, is unique to the US.

The next day marks the official start of Christmas shopping. Yes, Between Black Friday and Christmas Eve (till 7:00 PM, if I am not wrong) whatever commercial transactions take place, they go into the accounts books as Christmas sales, even revenues of gas stations, airlines ticket are counted under this rubric. That is how seriously commerce is taken in the US.Really.

This year, 2025, there are only 27 days of Christmas shopping, three days of November and 24 days of December. Maybe that is why it is called Black Friday, too few days to do Christmas shopping! No, that can’t be.

The Commerce department of the US Government compiles the money value of Christmas shopping every year, and compares that with the previous year taking into account the variation in the number of Christmas shopping days. For example, if the 1st of November falls on a Thursday, there would be a total of 32 days of Christmas shopping (if I counted wrong, do the math yourself). The eyes of retailers bug out!

If this period is marked for shopping, and all retailers and some others too, the start of this Christmas season must be Gold (lettered; ask D J Trump to tell you how) Friday. This is why I am flummoxed it is called Black Friday.

Perhaps someone would clarify.

Raghuram Ekambaram

P. S. Please note that I have highlighted (in italics) Christmas, sales, shopping etc. to make the point that Christmas appears to have turned its back on Jesus Christ, and towards shopping.