I was coming home today from church, (by the way, Happy Thanksgiving) and I heard something on the radio referring to tomorrow being "Black Friday", which made me think - why is the day after Thanksgiving called "Black Friday"? Doesn’t "black" usually connote bad or evil. Bad guys were black hats. The Mafia is referred to as the "Black Hand." Coalminers get black lung. And isn’t the day the of 1929 stock market crash called "Black Tuesday."

     Well, guess what - there is a "black" day for every day of the week. "Black Sunday" (1977) is a movie with a terrorist bomb plot. "Black Monday" (1987) was the modern day meltdown in Dow Jones. We already discussed Tuesday. "Black Wednesday" (1992) marks the collapse of the British Pound caused by currency speculation, with most notably George Soros leading the way. "Black Thursday" (1929) refers to the initial sell off in 1929 market, which preceded the fore mentioned Tuesday. "Black Saturday" has many references - a collapse in the Hong Kong markets (1983), the day God as man was dead (i.e., the day between Good Friday and Easter) and my personal favorite the day in 1984 that Vince McMahon assumed control of professional wrestling. Boy, "Black Friday" must really be bad. 

     Actually, not. It is "Black Friday" because it marks the first day of the official Christmas shopping season and is so named, since it is the first day supposedly that retailers will operate in the "black"  for the year. Now, aren’t you glad I cleared this up for you? Enough that you’ll get up at 4 a.m. and go stand in line? I didn’t think so.