Black Friday falls on …. Here's the live count:
Counting down to something else? Build your own with the countdown timer, or browse all holiday countdowns.
Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving in the United States — which makes it the fourth Friday of November, falling between November 23 and November 29. It has no date rule of its own: find Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday of November) and Black Friday is simply the next morning. This page works out both steps automatically and counts down to the next Black Friday, so the date at the top is right even in years when you're checking from January. It's traditionally the single biggest shopping day of the American year and the unofficial starting gun of the holiday shopping season.
The story most people hear — that it's the day retailers' books move "into the black," from loss to profit — is a later, tidier explanation. The documented origin is less flattering: in 1950s and 1960s Philadelphia, police officers used "Black Friday" for the day after Thanksgiving because of the crushing crowds and traffic that flooded the city for shopping and the Army–Navy football game. Retailers understandably disliked the name and promoted the accounting version instead; by the 1980s the friendlier meaning had won, and the term spread nationwide along with the doorbuster sales culture. These days the "day" stretches well beyond Friday — sales leak into the whole of November, much of the action happens online, and Cyber Monday, the Monday after, has become an event in its own right.
Because deals now roll out over weeks, the countdown's best use is as a budget deadline: decide what the big purchases are and what they should cost while there are still 60 or 90 days to go, then let the sales come to you. Comparing a "deal" price against prices from earlier in the year is the surest way to tell a genuine bargain from a relabeled one.
Is Black Friday a public holiday? Not a federal one — most private employers are open. Some states do observe the day after Thanksgiving as a state holiday for government workers, and many offices run on a skeleton staff regardless.
When is Cyber Monday? The Monday immediately after Black Friday — three days later. If this page says Black Friday is N days away, Cyber Monday is N + 3.