Happy Black Friday everyone!

So why is it called "black friday?"  Many retailers earn more than half of their income in the four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Otherwise their balance sheets would be filled with red ink at the end of the year.  It is to indicate profits, usually printed in black, rather than losses, usually printed in red.

But calling it Black Friday has an almost ominous, cultish sound.  Witchcraft and voodoo are called the black arts.  The Stock Market collapse in 1929 was called Black Thursday (definately not a profitable day).  The villian in movies almost always wears black.  The outlaw in Westerns wore a black hat.  Their are even suspicions of not letting a black cat cross your path.

Black Friday can be ominous, though.  Wait til you get your credit card bill next month.