Black Friday, that famous shopping day in the US that follows Thanksgiving which falls on the last Thursday of November, has just gone by. It enjoys the status of being the busiest shopping day of the year and it marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

Black Friday was actually a term used by the Philadelphia Police Department to describe the chaos caused by pedestrian and vehicular congestion. Retailers didn’t like the negative connotations ‘black’ evoked, and used the name to show off their success – when they make a profit, going from ‘red’ into ‘black’ – turning it into a positive name. It’s not an official holiday in the US but many employees in sectors other than retail have the day off.

There are other shopping days across the globe that enjoy their share of fame. Cyber Monday is an online shopping event held the Monday after Thanksgiving. Ellen Davis of the National Retail Federation in the US coined the term. The event debuted on November 28, 2005. It has come to be adopted by online retailers in a few countries across the world.

There is Small Business Saturday (SBS) as well. It was first observed in 2010. In contrast to Black Friday and Cyber Monday where big box retail and e-commerce stores are the major players, SBS encourages consumers to support brick-and-mortar businesses that are small and local. It was founded by American Express. It is held the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Did you know an event called Singles’ Day is the largest online shopping event in the world? It originated in China’s Nanjing University in the Nineties, as a sort of anti-Valentine’s Day. It is so called because the numeral 1 that makes up the date, November 11 (11/11) resembles individuals that are alone. Alibaba, China’s e-commerce major, adopted this day in 2009. On this day people buy themselves gifts. It’s also called Bachelor’s Day because there are more men than women in China.

This year, Chinese shoppers reportedly spent $17.8 billion in 24 hours, and more than $12 billion was spent on shopping website Alibaba in the first 12 hours.

Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated on the day following Christmas. In the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, it is known as a shopping holiday. In recent times, it has gone on to become Boxing Week.

Mexico too, has its special shopping event. Called El Buen Fin (The Good Weekend), it is held the weekend before the Mexican Revolution Holiday which falls on the third Monday of November. It aims to revive the economy by encouraging consumption. It began in 2011 as an initiative of business organisations and the government. The extensive consumerism manifested in these occasions has given rise to non-shopping days as well. Giving Tuesday is the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. It aims to turn into a global day of giving at the beginning of the holiday season. It was started in 2012 by the 92nd Street Y, a cultural and community-centric organisation based in New York, and the United Nations Foundation.

Buy Nothing Day (BND) is held in North America, the UK, Finland and Sweden, concurrent with Black Friday or in other parts of the world, the following Saturday.

It was founded in Vancouver by artist Ted Dave and later promoted by Adbusters magazine based in Canada.

According to the magazine’s website, its campaign promoting BND was refused by many television networks.

Adbusters calls itself as a “not-for-profit magazine fighting back against the hostile takeover of our psychological, physical and cultural environments by commercial forces”.

Some stores have begun to resist Black Friday by shutting their stores or using the occasion to make statements about meaningful buying rather than overspending.

Compiled by Sravanthi Challapalli

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