When Is Black Friday?
Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving.
Why does the date change every year?
Black Friday has no date of its own. It is simply the day after Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving is defined in U.S. law as the fourth Thursday in November. So Black Friday is always a Friday, and always lands somewhere between November 23 and November 29.
It is not a public holiday. It has never been legislated, proclaimed, or officially recognised as anything. It is a Friday that got a reputation.
| Year | Thanksgiving | Black Friday |
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Why is it called Black Friday?
You have probably heard that retailers spend the year "in the red" and this is the day their books finally tip "into the black". It is a tidy story. It is also a retcon, and a fairly recent one.
The name was coined by Philadelphia police in the 1950s, and they did not mean it kindly. The day after Thanksgiving brought suburban shoppers and tourists flooding into the city centre, often ahead of the Army-Navy game that weekend. Officers worked extended shifts wrangling gridlocked traffic and heaving crowds, and shoplifters made the most of the chaos. Black Friday was what the cops called the worst traffic day of their year. Black Saturday followed it.
The city's merchants understood exactly how bad this sounded. By 1961 the name had stuck firmly enough in Philadelphia that local retailers and boosters tried to rebrand the day "Big Friday". It failed completely. Nobody says Big Friday.
The accounting explanation arrived much later. Retailers reinvented the term in the late 1980s, reframing a phrase about police overtime and pickpockets into an upbeat story about profitability. That version won, because it was the one printed in the advertising. As recently as 1985 the term was not in common use nationally at all: this is a regional insult that went national, then got a publicist.
There is a second irony worth having. The reason the shopping season starts the instant Thanksgiving ends is that a president deliberately engineered it. In 1939 Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving a week earlier specifically to lengthen the Christmas shopping run, half the country revolted, and Congress settled it in 1941. The full story is on our days until Thanksgiving page.
Frequently asked questions
When is Black Friday?
Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, the fourth Friday in November.
How many days until Black Friday?
The live counter at the top of this page has the exact figure.
What date is Black Friday this year?
See the answer at the top of this page.
Is Black Friday always the day after Thanksgiving?
Yes, in the United States. Because Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday in November, Black Friday is always the fourth Friday, falling between November 23 and 29.
Is Black Friday a public holiday?
No. It has no legal status at all. Many employers give the day off because it sits between Thanksgiving and the weekend, but that is custom, not law.
Did Black Friday really get its name from retailers going "into the black"?
No. That explanation was popularised by retailers in the late 1980s. The name originated with Philadelphia police in the 1950s describing the traffic chaos and crowds after Thanksgiving.
When is Cyber Monday?
The Monday immediately after Thanksgiving, three days after Black Friday. It is a far newer coinage, invented by a retail trade association in the 2000s.
Sources & verification
- History.com: What's the Real History of Black Friday? - the Philadelphia police origin and the "in the black" retcon
- Vocabulary.com Word Routes: The Origins of "Black Friday" - the 1961 "Big Friday" rebrand attempt
- Billy Penn: The very Philly reason it's called Black Friday
Dates are computed from the fourth-Thursday rule at page load rather than typed in, so the table cannot drift. Historical claims last checked July 15, 2026.