The Friday after Thanksgiving has become a shopping phenomena in the United States, with hordes of shoppers queueing up at all hours of the night for discounted holiday goods. The annual tradition has even resulted in deaths, with victims crushed to death by teeming crowds. Even when the sales stay under control, images of crazed shoppers running through stores across the country invariably make headlines on what has been the country's busiest shopping day of the year since at least 2005.
However, Americans aren't the only ones bitten by the holiday shopping bug. Around the globe, major holidays, from Ramadan to the Chinese New Year, send crowds searching for gifts, groceries, and garlands for the festivities. Think your holiday routine is stressful? Take heart: you are not alone.
Above, Sunday shoppers crowd a narrow street in the Ameyoko shopping district in Tokyo on Dec. 27, 2009. More than one million people were expected to visit the district until Dec. 31 to buy groceries in preparation for the New Year's holiday, one of the most important holiday events in Japan.
While Ramadan is a period of fasting for Muslims, the holiday actually leads to weight gain among many of the faithful due to hefty break-fast meals at the end of each day. Newspapers and blogs offer advice and special offers to practicing Muslims to avoid holiday putting on pounds. And as with the Christmas holiday season, many celebrate the holiday season by shopping. Traditionally, buying food for the nightly meal is the most obvious reason for Muslims to hit the markets. In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, food sales are typically at their highest during the holy month. Retailers across the Muslim world have taken advantage of shoppers' other appetites with sales on everything from clothes to cars.
Above, employees waiting for customers at a shopping center offering Eid al-Fitr holiday discounts in Jakarta, on Nov. 24, 2003, as Indoneisan Muslims prepared to celebrate the end of Ramadan with a long public holiday.
Indian shoppers throng the Teen Darwaja marketplace in Ahmedabad on Oct. 11, 2009, ahead of Diwali festivities. The festival of Diwali commemorates a victory by the Hindu god Lord Rama. Today, celebrants throng stores in preparation for the holiday, a boon for retailers. ''I come to Sarojini Nagar market every year for Diwali shopping but I have never seen such a rush,'' shopper Pihu Kapoor told the Times of India last year.
Above, people crowd a market to buy gifts for the Lunar New Year in Hong Kong on Jan. 24, 2009. Hong Kong retailers, who generally see a bump in shopping during the Christmas season, are pushing to make the Lunar New year a holiday shopping bonanza as well. "Many malls hope to meet lofty sales goals of more than 20 percent growth in sales over last Lunar New Year -- and are readily marketing the holiday as another excuse to spend," the Wall Street Journal reported in 2011.
Shoppers throng the 25 de Marco street during the Christmas season on Dec. 4, 2010 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The 25 de Marco is one of the largest shopping areas in Brazil, boasting roughly 3,000 shops. During the Christmas season, an estimated one million people flood its streets.
People line up inside the Galeries Lafayette in Paris during the first day of the winter sales on Jan. 12, 2011 in Paris. Winter sales are a popular tradition throughout France, and are accompanied by tight government regulations on how long and during what period sale prices can be advertised.
Sale-seekers push their way into the Selfridges department store on London's Oxford Street, at the start of the after Christmas sales on Dec. 26, 2010. As is often the case on Black Friday in the U.S., thrify Londoners camp out in front of stores in order to reserve prime bargain-hunting spots positioning.
