Today is Friday. Which, for most people, means a ‘big night out’. But a big night out gets multiplied times a million on the last Friday night before Christmas, when people are ‘larging it’ to the extreme, and a lot of offices have their Christmas parties.
Which is why today is being dubbed ‘Black Eye Friday’ – the booziest night of the year. The ‘black eye’ refers to the fact that booze-related violence reaches its peak on this date. Yorkshire Police has said they’re expecting to attend 50% more call outs than normal on the night, with almost all of the increase down to drink-fuelled violence.
The night is also known as ‘Mad Friday’, which we think is slightly better than something denoting someone getting beaten up as an expected part of a night out. In fact, the mother of a man who tragically died after just one punch to the head on a drunken night out has asked for the day’s name to be changed.
Apparently, the day used to be called Black Friday, before the American tradition of megashopping during their Thanksgiving weekend hopped across the pond.
The papers are predicting chaos on the streets tonight, with the* Express* reporting police are drafting in thousands of extra officers to patrol the streets to deal with ‘abusive drunks’ and predicting the demand for lawyers will double overnight after people find themselves in police cells.
Ambulance services also report huge rises in the number of call-outs on this date.
If this all sounds a bit like a party acopalypse, you’d be right, and naturally the papers will be full of mean pictures of people looking pissed on a night out tomorrow morning. Because when you’ve had a heavy night, what you really want is some creepy photos of you spread across the national press the next day.
So what is there to add? Not to get all Mumsy on you all, but stay safe this Black Friday. Try not to get completely obliterated, enjoy booze within reason and make sure you get home safely.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.