Countdown to
Black Friday
Where the holiday shopping season begins
Today is Black Friday.
25 days until Black Friday, on Friday, November 27, 2026.
Black Friday is Friday, November 27, 2026. Happens the Friday after the fourth Thursday of November.
Black Friday is the unofficial opening day of the holiday shopping season in the United States, falling on the Friday right after Thanksgiving. For retailers it is one of the most important dates on the calendar; for shoppers it has become shorthand for the year’s steepest discounts on everything from televisions to toys.
Where the name comes from
The date is partly a quirk of the calendar. Congress fixed Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday of November in 1941, which left the Friday after as an unofficial day off for many workers and a natural launch point for Christmas shopping. The name itself arrived decades later. By the 1950s and ’60s, Philadelphia police were using “Black Friday” — and not as a compliment — for the traffic jams and crowds that swamped the city center the day after the holiday.
The neater story, that the day pushes retailers’ ledgers from red ink into the black, spread widely in the 1980s. It is a later reinterpretation rather than the true source, though it stuck because it flattered both stores and shoppers.
How it’s observed
For much of its history, Black Friday meant lining up before dawn for a handful of limited “doorbuster” deals, then racing between stores with a folded newspaper circular in hand. That ritual has softened. Sales now open online days ahead and run through Cyber Monday, a term the National Retail Federation coined in 2005 to capture the online spending that follows the weekend. Small Business Saturday, promoted by American Express since 2010, fills the day in between and steers shoppers toward local stores.
The event has also outgrown its home country. Retailers in the United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany, and beyond now run their own Black Friday promotions, largely a byproduct of global online shopping and the reach of international chains. In many of these markets the day has no connection to Thanksgiving at all — it simply arrived as a discount season.
Not everyone takes part. Buy Nothing Day, an anti-consumerist protest launched in the early 1990s, is deliberately scheduled on the same date as a quiet counterpoint to the rush. Whether you plan to shop the sales, browse from your couch, or sit the whole thing out, the countdown above tracks exactly how long you have until the next one.
🛍️ Fun facts about Black Friday
- Philadelphia police popularized the term in the 1950s and '60s to describe the traffic and crowds that clogged downtown the day after Thanksgiving.
- The tidy explanation that the day moves retailers from red ink into the black is a later reinterpretation, not the term's real origin.
- Cyber Monday was coined in a 2005 press release from the National Retail Federation to name the online-shopping surge the following Monday.
- Buy Nothing Day, an anti-consumerist protest that dates back to the early 1990s, is deliberately held on the same date.
- Thanksgiving was fixed as the fourth Thursday of November by Congress in 1941, after President Franklin Roosevelt had moved it earlier to lengthen the Christmas shopping season.
Upcoming Black Friday dates
| Date | Days away |
|---|---|
| 25 days | |
| 389 days | |
| 753 days | |
| 1,117 days | |
| 1,488 days |
How people mark Black Friday
- Early-morning doorbuster deals
- Planning routes from store ads and circulars
- Big-ticket electronics purchases
- Kicking off holiday gift shopping
- Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday that follow
- Observing Buy Nothing Day instead
Frequently asked
What day is Black Friday?
Black Friday is always the day after US Thanksgiving, which means the Friday following the fourth Thursday in November, so it lands between November 23 and 29.
Why is it called Black Friday?
The name was popularized by Philadelphia police in the mid-20th century for the crowds and traffic the day after Thanksgiving. The 'back in the black' retail accounting story came later and is not the true origin.
What is Cyber Monday?
Cyber Monday is the Monday after Black Friday, named in 2005 to highlight the online sales that follow the holiday weekend. Many retailers now spread deals across the entire stretch.
Is Black Friday only in the United States?
It began in the US but has spread widely. The UK, Brazil, Germany, and other markets now run Black Friday sales, largely driven by international online retailers.