Black Days

Today is 'Black Friday', named as the busiest day for shopping in The United States. I had been disturbed by the use of 'Black' for this day, as it tends to be reserved for more serious things. People then explained to me that it was called 'Black Friday' because it was when stores moved from 'the red' into 'the black', implying that they run at a loss before this date. Turns out this is a misconception and it was named 'Black Friday' because of it's busy and hectic nature back in the mid-seventies. I don't think it deserves this title at all. Black days should hold true meaning. Black days of the week should and do stem from massacres, riots, specific events of war, or terrible economic events. The most well-known would be Black Tuesday, in reference to the October 29th stock-market crash in 1929 that led to the Great Depression. The initial crash occurred a few days before, on the 24th, that day is referred to as Black Thursday. For me though, 'Black Friday', referrers to February 20, 1959, the day that Prime Minister Diefenbaker announced that the Avro Arrow project was cancelled. Named this by Avro plant workers, 60,000 of who were laid off because of this cancellation. At the time Avro was the third largest employer in Canada. After this many engineers and technicians left Canada to work in the U.S. starting what is known as the 'brain drain'. The announcement day for the end of the Avro Arrow is still considered the darkest day for Canadian engineering.