New Delhi, Nov. 28 -- "Black Friday" is now known worldwide as a major shopping event, but its name has much older, local roots. The term did not start as a celebration - it began as a way to describe chaos.

The modern usage of "Black Friday" traces back to Philadelphia in the 1950s and 1960s.

Police officers and bus drivers used the term "Black Friday" to describe the day after Thanksgiving because:

-Streets were packed with shoppers

-Traffic jams lasted for hours

-Stores were overcrowded

-Shoplifting incidents surged

For them, it was one of the toughest days of the year to manage, so they called it "black" in the sense of being stressful and disruptive.

Local retailers were unhappy with the negative connotation. They tried renam...