Black Friday might feel like a day for shopping for the holidays, but its history is a lot more than long lines and TV’s. The name originated from a financial disaster in 1869 on Wall Street, trying to pay national debt.

The Black Friday that we know and love today started in Philadelphia in the 1960s when many suburban tourists came into the city to do holiday shopping. Police gave it the name Black Friday due to how busy it was.

It wasn’t until the 1980s that stores gave it the official name, to make Black Friday something to look forward to because it was the biggest day for shopping in America.

 A popular saying used by stores is “going from in the red to in the black”, this means going from debt to being in the positives. Even though that saying wasn’t entirely true, people still liked it.

By the 2000s, Black Friday had become a full on shopping event with people camped outside of stores, companies giving out huge discounts, and news stations reporting in the busy stores. 

Once online shopping came out the whole thing expanded even more, introducing cyber monday and entire weeks of early deals.

Sophomore Isa Khan feels like the sales on Black Friday contributes to his gaming habits.

“I like Black Friday, one of my favorite part about it is how a lot of video games are cheaper for Playstation”

Today, Black Friday isn’t just an American holiday, it’s gone global, with almost every store participating in some way.

Written by sophomore Logan Groh. Edited by staff writers for Oswego East’s online news magazine The Howl.