# "Black Friday" internationally **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 23, 2012, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-friday-internationally/641911 "2012-11-23T16:57:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-friday-internationally/641911/1 "2012-11-23T16:57:24Z")
I know Thanksgiving is an American holiday, so “Black Friday” should be American as well. But do any other countries have a day with unusually heavy shopping, in anticipation of Christmas (or any other gift-giving holiday)? ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-friday-internationally/641911/2 "2012-11-23T17:04:03Z")
Sweden: no. The stores are filled with people all through December, making it impossible for people who feel uncomfortable in crowds, like myself, to get something you really need and then there’s the after Christmas sale between boxing day and New Year. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-friday-internationally/641911/3 "2012-11-23T17:04:47Z")
Boxing day here in Canada. The day after Christmas, if you can believe it. Oh, and since many of our stores are US owned or have US subsidiaries we are now getting into Black Friday also. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-friday-internationally/641911/4 "2012-11-23T17:04:57Z")
Actually, several Israeli retail chains are having a Black Friday sale, in honor of the American holiday, Black Friday. (That aside, the big shopping seasons are before Rosh Hashana and Passover). ---
**Author:** ![Corcaigh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Corcaigh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corcaigh)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-friday-internationally/641911/5 "2012-11-23T17:31:40Z")
The only equivalent I can think of is the January Sales, which used to start on Jan 1st but now start any time from Dec 1st ---
**Author:** ![Bisected8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a4c791/32.png) [@Bisected8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bisected8)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-friday-internationally/641911/6 "2012-11-23T18:10:03Z")
Over here in the UK we have the January sales (although they don’t have anything near the “someone’s going to die” reputation that I get the impression of from descriptions of Black Friday). A few websites are having black friday sales though (I suspect they’re trying to introduce it as an excuse to offer discounts and give shoppers the impression they’re getting a bargin more than anything, though). ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-friday-internationally/641911/7 "2012-11-23T19:04:08Z")
> [@Corcaigh](#): > > The only equivalent I can think of is the January Sales, which used to start on Jan 1st but now start any time from Dec 1st There used to be a particular Saturday in December, I think maybe the 2nd one, that was the busiest shopping day of the year in Dublin. I think with out of town shopping centres everywhere now it’s no longer as big a thing. ---
**Author:** ![Ashley\_Pomeroy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c68b51/32.png) [@Ashley\_Pomeroy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashley_Pomeroy)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-friday-internationally/641911/8 "2012-11-23T20:04:32Z")
> [@Bisected8](#): > > Over here in the UK we have the January sales (although they don’t have anything near the “someone’s going to die” reputation that I get the impression of from descriptions of Black Friday). The only shopping riots I can think of here in the UK were a couple of incidents a few years ago when Ikea opened some new stores in London - one in [February 2005](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4252421.stm), and I’m sure there was a similar one in 2001. And there have been plenty of riots in which people visited shops, but they were spontaneous affairs that had nothing to do with the time of the season. I hadn’t heard of Black Friday until recently, but like excessive Halloween celebrations I’m sure it’ll cross the Atlantic bah humbug etc. I’m genuinely surprised that we haven’t adopted Thanksgiving. It puzzled the shit out of me in _Planes, Trains and Automobiles_ - why were they calling Christmas “thanksgiving”, or was it a separate holiday, and if so why was it so near Christmas-time, what? - and that was 1987. I’ve always assumed it was something specifically American to do with independence or the Mayflower or something, but apparently not. ---
**Author:** ![phreesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@phreesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phreesh)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-friday-internationally/641911/9 "2012-11-23T21:34:23Z")
To expand a bit on the shopping ‘traditions’ of Canada. We’ve had Boxing Day (which is a British tradition, I believe) since forever. It lands on December 26 (and is often ‘boxing week’ now). Sadly, it has nothing to do with people fighting and more to do with having to ‘box up’ all the extra unsold inventory or something. I’m not 100% sure what it’s supposed to mean. With regard to Black Friday, we don’t have that tradition as our Thanksgiving is weeks earlier than the USA’s. That said, because so many retailers here are American-based, it’s been seeping up here and is getting pretty common. In fact, I was at the Hudson’s Bay Company (The Bay, up here) and bought some stuff at a Black Friday sale. Plus, we get most of the same online Black Friday sales. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-friday-internationally/641911/10 "2012-11-23T22:44:53Z")
> [@phreesh](#): > > To expand a bit on the shopping ‘traditions’ of Canada. We’ve had Boxing Day (which is a British tradition, I believe) since forever. It lands on December 26 (and is often ‘boxing week’ now). Sadly, it has nothing to do with people fighting and more to do with having to ‘box up’ all the extra unsold inventory or something. I’m not 100% sure what it’s supposed to mean. The name has nothing to do with shopping. The holiday is an old British one and refers to giving presents in boxes to servants and tradespeople. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-friday-internationally/641911/11 "2012-11-23T23:02:38Z")
We don’t have Thanksgiving in Oz and the retailers have been pushing us Christmas-ward since late August. The big sale day here is Boxing Day and the post-Christmas sales continue for two to four weeks. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-friday-internationally/641911/12 "2012-11-24T05:36:17Z")
Pakistan. _Chand Raat_, literally “Night of the new moon”, the last day before Eid is absolutely fucking crazy as far as shopping is concerned. ---
**Author:** ![bardos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bardos/32/1069_2.png) [@bardos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bardos)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-friday-internationally/641911/13 "2012-11-24T06:31:53Z")
In Spain, i received several advertising emails from Spanish online companies with the heading “Black Friday” sales. Like Halloween, if it’s American and has to do with commerce and making money, it’ll spread worldwide. ---
**Author:** ![glas\_onion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9dc877/32.png) [@glas\_onion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glas_onion)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-friday-internationally/641911/14 "2012-11-24T07:25:57Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > There used to be a particular Saturday in December, I think maybe the 2nd one, that was the busiest shopping day of the year in Dublin. I think with out of town shopping centres everywhere now it’s no longer as big a thing. There’s also the traditional 8th December (Feast of the Immaculate Conception) pilgrimige “up to Dublin” for the shopping, by people from other parts of the country. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-friday-internationally/641911/15 "2012-11-24T07:50:15Z")
Note that it was not until a few years ago that Black Friday became the biggest shopping day of the year: > **[Black Friday (shopping)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping))** > > Black Friday is a colloquial term for the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States. It traditionally marks the start of the Christmas shopping season in the United States. Many stores > offer highly promoted sales at discounted prices and often open early, sometimes as early as midnight or even on Thanksgiving. Some stores' sales continue to Monday ("Cyber Monday") or for a week ("Cyber Week"). > Black Friday has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States. > For c... Until quite recently, Black Friday was no more than fifth biggest shopping day of the year. It only became the biggest shopping day of the year after a decade or so of TV news stories which proclaimed it as being the biggest shopping day of the year. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-friday-internationally/641911/16 "2012-11-24T08:21:10Z")
More myths about Black Friday: > **[5 Black Friday Myths the Media Wants You to Believe](https://www.cracked.com/article_19572_5-black-friday-myths-the-media-wants-you-to-believe.html)** > > Most of what you believe about Black Friday is a myth, right down to the day it falls on. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-friday-internationally/641911/17 "2012-11-24T09:35:20Z")
In the UK, the retailers’ PR machines like to crank up stories in the press about ‘the busiest shopping day before Christmas’, which is usually the last Saturday before the 25th. Otherwise, Boxing Day is _The_ shopping day, as that’s when the sales often start plus people clearly can’t cope with having the shops closed for one whole day the day before so are desperate to go shopping. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-friday-internationally/641911/18 "2012-11-24T10:44:02Z")
> [@glas\_onion](#): > > There’s also the traditional 8th December (Feast of the Immaculate Conception) pilgrimige “up to Dublin” for the shopping, by people from other parts of the country. Ah yes that’s the one, didn’t make it clear it was people coming up to Dublin for Christmas shopping. Is it still a thing? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-friday-internationally/641911/19 "2012-11-24T14:47:47Z")
> [@Ashley\_Pomeroy](#): > > I’m genuinely surprised that we haven’t adopted Thanksgiving. It puzzled the shit out of me in _Planes, Trains and Automobiles_ - why were they calling Christmas “thanksgiving”, or was it a separate holiday, and if so why was it so near Christmas-time, what? - and that was 1987. I’ve always assumed it was something specifically American to do with independence or the Mayflower or something, but apparently not. It does have to do with the Mayflower, sort of - schoolchildren learn that the First Thanksgiving is when the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock and didn’t know how to fucking feed themselves so the nice Native Americans took pity on the n00bs and brought them dinner and they all ate together in peace and harmony (and, I dunno, Squanto was there or something.) You can see period documentation [here.](http://www.costumesupercenter.com/thanksgivingcostumes.html) (Kids at least used to have to participate in pageant sort of things at school. Now it may not be PC, I’m not sure. I’m pretty sure they still draw hand turkeys, though.) Various presidents and governors and such called for days of thanksgiving on all sorts of dates in the past, but it was fixed IIRC by Lincoln and then moved by FDR because, you know, shopping. So now it’s always the fourth Thursday in November. I assume the Black Friday “tradition” is assisted by the fact that many people have that Friday off. Of course, there have also always been harvest festivals, and modern Americans have a distinct lack of feast holidays, so this fills that gap. (It’s an oddity - a holiday where there isn’t very much they can do to sell you stuff. That’s why stores pretty much go from Halloween right to Christmas.) Canada has their own, but it’s earlier. ETA - **AK84** , that’s really interesting about Chand Raat. ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-friday-internationally/641911/20 "2012-11-24T19:37:24Z")
In the Netherlands there are sales after St Nicholas (Sinterklaas), which is celebrated on the 5th of December. I think it’s usually the specific Sinterklaas stuff that’s on sale though: the foods, the wrapping paper, decorations etc. I’m not sure, this will be my first time celebrating it here in the Netherlands in years. Maybe it’s turning into Black Friday here too? It’d be miserable, but it would be sort of helpful too since I’m broke… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-friday-internationally/641911.md?page=2)