Black Friday is almost here. What to know about the holiday sales event's history and evolution

abcnews.go.com:

If you didn’t already guess it from a barrage of sales ads in your inbox, the holiday shopping season is upon us

NEW YORK — If you didn't already guess it from a barrage of sales ads in your inbox, the holiday shopping season is upon us. And Black Friday is right around the corner.

While Black Friday may no longer look like the crowd-filled, in-person mayhem that it was just decades ago — in large part due to the rising dependence on online shopping that was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic — the holiday sales event is still slated to attract millions of consumers.

The National Retail Federation projects that an estimated 182 million are planning to shop in-stores and online through the five-day Thanksgiving weekend. Black Friday is set to lead the charge, making up for 130.7 million of the potential shoppers.

At the same time, economists note that fear of inflation, while down from a year ago, is still a concern looming in consumers' minds — and could lead to somewhat modest spending this season. The extension of Black Friday sales and growing strength of other shopping events (hello Cyber Monday ) is also changing what holiday spending looks like today.

Here's what you need to know about Black Friday's history and where things stand in 2023.

Black Friday falls on the Friday after Thanksgiving each year. In 2023, Black Friday is Nov. 24.

The term “Black Friday” is several generations old, but it wasn't always associated with the holiday retail frenzy that we know today. The gold market crash of September 1869, for example, was notably dubbed Black Friday.

The phrase's use in relation to shopping the day after Thanksgiving, however, is most often traced to Philadelphia in the mid-20th century — when police and other