Johannesburg: Major shopping malls across South Africa have hosted an unprecedented number of Diwali festivals this year, linking the 'festival of lights' with the traditional Black Friday sales, which in recent years have transformed into extended 'Black November' discounts in the country.

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The commercial link between Diwali celebrations and Black Friday sales is founded on the fact that these occasions are close together on the calendar -- Diwali falling in early November and Black Friday on the last Friday of the month.

Malls and major retailers use Diwali as the official gateway to launch their fourth-quarter festive shopping momentum, culminating in hectic shopping on Christmas Eve in December.

Rather than treating Black Friday as a single-day event, South African retailers now extend promotions across the entire month, with Diwali providing leverage for pop-up markets and cultural expos of Indian music and dance in early November to pull shoppers.

Retailers frequently launch "Early Black Friday" deals or festive pre-sale discounts specifically structured around the Diwali shopping week to capture gift, apparel, and home-decor spend.

Several factors add to its impetus, according to the Congress of Business and Economics (CBE), the business wing of the Transvaal Indian Congress. "Diwali and Black Friday drive consumer interest in the high-margin inventory categories of gold, jewellery and luxury wear. Both occasions also incentivise consumers to upgrade appliances, home electronics, and furniture as year-end expenditure," said Yusuf Moosajee, deputy president of CBE.

"Shopping malls strategically schedule Diwali cultural performances, rangoli displays, and live entertainment, especially Bollywood song and dance, to convert casual festive visitors into Black Friday window-shoppers.

"The high footfall generated by Diwali events and cultural expos feeds directly into tenant sales across food courts, department stores, and supermarket anchors," Moosajee added.

The events attract not only large sections of the Indian community in South Africa, but also shoppers of all other communities who come for entertainment-linked bargains.

The cultural elements also serve as an excellent medium for social cohesion across communities, besides driving up footfall at malls, said AB Moosa, CEO of the Avalon Group, which has cinemas in major cities of South Africa.

"It's also very gratifying to see how our country has emerged from the apartheid era, when such events were almost taboo at major shopping events in South Africa, to where every major mall now vies with its competitors to outdo them," Moosa said, adding that he has noticed at least half a dozen major malls hosting Diwali events for the first time this year.

For Indian entertainers, the mall events provided a rare annual opportunity to showcase their talents to a much wider audience.

"We found that our artists end up not only winning new fans across communities but getting invited to many more events after appearing at these Diwali events," said Anil Rambaran, who not only sings but also provides sound arrangements for many of these events through his company.

Diwali events might end by this weekend, but the signs at shops about special festive bargains are likely to remain displayed as extended Black November shopping continues.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Mathrubhumi and is published from a syndicated feed.)