For all non Americans
Thanksgiving is an American and Canadian Tradition.
For Americans it occurs on the fourth Thursday of November.
It is believed that the first Thanksgiving was conducted by the Plymouth Pilgrims to mark suriviving their harsh first winter.
The Friday after Thanksgiving, although not a Federal holiday, is a holiday for many companies, except for those in retail. It is also a day off for most schools. It is popularly known as Black Friday, so-called because of the heavy shopping traffic on that day.
Another reason for the term 'Black Friday' is that many stores reach sales numbers that take them out of the red and (hopefully) keep them in the black for the rest of the fiscal year. Black Friday has been considered by retailers to be the start of the Christmas shopping season since at least the 1930s.
