Black Friday was once a distinctly American occasion — the day after Thanksgiving when retailers offer outrageous discounts to kick off the holiday shopping season.
However, the trend is going global. Several countries including Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Norway, France, Australia, Romania, and Germany all have begun to copy the tradition in recent years, with retailers declaring massive discount days on or around the same time as Black Friday in the US.
Canada's reasoning is especially interesting: According to the CBC, Canadian retailers started their own Black Friday tradition to discourage Canadians from crossing the border and taking advantage of the discounts in the US.