Forget Black Friday -- the madness now begins when stores open up early on Thanksgiving night ... and a Pennsylvania mall's one of the first to have a fight break out as holiday shopping kicks off.
The chaos reportedly went down at the Lehigh Valley Mall in Whitehall Thursday night after 9 PM ... when at least 5 men got involved in a brawl outside the Forever 21.
As you see in the video, it appears 2 men are involved in a fistfight when a third in a striped shirt jumps in to deliver a few blows. Security tries to separate it to no avail, and at least 2 more men join in on the ruckus.
It's unclear what ignited the fight, but a local report says it lasted about a minute before it was separated ... and it didn't appear anyone was arrested. We're working on more details.
As we've reported ... Black Friday's known as one of the most dangerous shopping days -- the craziness just started a bit early this year.