The holiday first began in 1992 in Canada.
Buy Nothing Friday is something you may not have heard of, but the anti-Black Friday holiday serves as a replacement for the chaos that can come the day after — and increasingly the night of — Thanksgiving.
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, has become a high time for holiday shoppers to nab the best deals on gifts for themselves and others. But it's often riddled with tales of shoppers trampling over each other to make sure they can get what the stores advertise as their best sales.
Buy Nothing Friday, however, is the complete opposite. People are urged to not spend a dime on the day — no train rides, no trips to the mall, literally nothing.
The holiday was created by artist Ted Dave in Canada in September 1992 as part of the movement against consumerism.
In 1997, the holiday was moved to one of the most popular shopping days of the year, seemingly the most appropriate time to boycott unnecessary spending.
Once the day became popular in America around 2011 after Canadian magazine “Adbusters” wrote about it, Americans began holding marches to celebrate the day.
Over the years, people have tweeted to share what they do for the holiday. Some said they donated to charity. Others said they specifically wouldn’t shop because they don't want to support stores that make their employees work during the holiday instead of letting them spend the time with family and friends. Some companies started opening later on Black Friday, and even closing on Thanksgiving altogether, in response to those sentiments.
One person joked about deleting every Black Friday email they received.
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