Black Friday is called “Black Friday” because police and local officials in Philadelphia used the term in the 1950s–60s to describe the heavy traffic, crowded streets, and chaos in the city on the day after Thanksgiving, especially around shopping and the Army–Navy football game. Later, retailers popularized a more positive explanation that it was the day their accounts moved “into the black,” meaning into profit.

Origin of the name

In the mid-20th century, Philadelphia saw a huge surge of visitors the Friday after Thanksgiving, who came both to shop and to attend the Army–Navy game. Local police, exhausted by long shifts, traffic jams, and crowd control problems, began calling this troublesome day “Black Friday” because of its negative impact on their work.

City merchants disliked the gloomy sound of the phrase and briefly tried to rebrand the day as “Big Friday,” but the original name stuck with the public. Over time, as shopping on that day grew, the term spread beyond Philadelphia and became nationally recognized.

The “in the black” myth

Decades later, a different story became popular: that “Black Friday” is when retailers finally turn a profit for the year, moving from “in the red” (losses) to “in the black” (profits) in their ledgers. This explanation is catchy and business-friendly, so many stores and ads still repeat it even though historians note it came after the earlier Philadelphia usage.

Retailers leaned into this narrative from the late 1980s onward as big discounts and doorbuster deals turned the day into a symbol of strong sales. In reality, for many stores the single biggest sales day has often been closer to the last Saturday before Christmas, not the day after Thanksgiving.

From chaotic day to shopping ritual

Once the name and practice spread, the Friday after Thanksgiving became known as the unofficial start of the U.S. holiday shopping season. Businesses used the long weekend and people’s day off to promote early-morning openings, limited-time deals, and highly advertised sales that encouraged lining up before dawn.

Over time, what started as a local headache for police evolved into a national shopping ritual, now extended into online events and entire “Black Friday weeks.” This evolution has shifted the meaning of the term from something negative for city workers to something mostly associated with bargains and consumer excitement.

Forum and trending context

In forum discussions and Q&A threads, people often debate which origin story is “true”: the police-and-traffic story versus the profits-and-ledgers story. The consensus among historians and major reference sources is that the Philadelphia usage for traffic and crowd chaos came first, and the “in the black” version was a later, more marketable spin.

In recent years, conversations also mention how Black Friday has transformed from in‑store stampedes to a mix of online deals, extended “Black November” promotions, and global adoption in countries that do not even celebrate Thanksgiving. This keeps “why is Black Friday called Black Friday” a recurring trending topic every November, as new shoppers encounter both the myth and the documented history.

TL;DR: It was originally a nickname from Philadelphia police for the chaotic, crowded Friday after Thanksgiving, and only later reinterpreted as the day retailers go “into the black” financially.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.