Thanksgiving has always been a serious business. Falling on the fourth Thursday of each November and traditionally a harvest festival holiday in which Americans express their gratitude for having food on their table with a family feast, it has also represented a celebration of freedom and liberty. However, in recent times, Thanksgiving has also meant something else to Americans. It has become the eagerly awaited starting point for the Christmas run-up.

Some may feel that it is unfortunate that such an important date in the US calendar has been seemingly diluted by the spectre of retail Christmas Future, but as with so many events in the annual calendar, some degree of evolution is almost inevitable as social values change. The Friday after Thanksgiving is when stores across America experience one of their biggest days of the year: quite literally a buying frenzy. This is a day on which many people forget work, extend their holiday into a long weekend and begin Christmas shopping, taking advantage of the huge discount incentives on offer, many up to 70%.

Since the 1960's this phenomenon has become known as Black Friday and it is one of the most important dates in the retailing calendar, nowhere more so than in Philadelphia where it first started. There are numerous theories as to how this name was coined. Some have claimed that it results from the endless traffic jams brought about by the sheer number of shoppers. Others have blamed the stress brought about through having to battle through the crowds. In 2008, one Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death in the rush to be first to the bargains. However, the most commonly held explanation is that it is the day on which retailers go from being in the red to finally turning a profit and going into the black. Whatever the reason, Black Friday has come to represent a shopping fest of extraordinary depths, where some shoppers even conduct all night vigils outside stores, directly after their Thanksgiving dinner, in order to have as much time as possible to grab those bargains.

Yet even that way of life is now challenged, because Internet shopping has become an ever more popular and trusted option for consumers. Suddenly, everything has changed. Now, there is a powerful and very real alternative to the annual Friday crush that offers the tantalising prospect of stress free online shopping for those battle weary Americans at potentially even better prices. Interestingly, this has itself created its own version of Black Friday in the rather aptly named Cyber Monday; a phrase used by an online retailer following a report on the significant upturn of online business on the Monday after Black Friday. This upturn is highly significant, to the tune of over $900 million, whilst the receipts on Black Friday are down considerably over the same period. What has brought this about? Why would the Monday after Black Friday generate such a spike? The conclusion is simply this. Black Friday is for looking, testing and researching and Cyber Monday is for pushing the button to buy.

Will it prove to be the end of Black Friday? Perhaps. But then many Americans believe that this could lead to Thanksgiving becoming a more meaningful celebration once again.