The day of November 11th is celebrated as the Singles’ Day in China. It is also known as “Double 11” which is a commercial holiday to celebrate single or bachelor people. In China, the number “1” is an Internet slang for single people. As the number “1” resembles the “bare sticks” which is used for individuals who don’t marry and therefore, they do not add branches to the family tree. Hence, the date “11/11” was chosen to celebrate this day.
The Singles’ Day, November 11 or 11/11 has become the biggest online shopping day. The sales according to the Alibaba merchandise was recorded to be over $30.7 billion in 2018. And the shoppers broke the same record with $38.4 billion in 2019. On this day, the single people all over China pamper themselves with shopping, having nice feast as dinner and having fun.
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Origin | Singles’ Day
The Singles’ Day was initially known as the Bachelors’ Day. It originated in 1993 from China’s Nanjing University when solo students decided to celebrate their single-hood out of the dorm culture. Later, many other Universities adopted and started celebrating the same. The day of November 11 i.e. 11/11 was selected as the four of number “1” represents the four singles. It was originally celebrated by the single men who took pride in being single. Hence the name was “Bachelors’ Day”. Social media got flooded and the celebrations became the point of discussions. Later, it spread over the whole country and is celebrated by the “singles” regardless of the gender.
Celebrations | Singles’ Day
On Single’s day, people go on shopping spree, organising parties and having fun together. The all-single parties are organised and many people go on blind dates as well. This special day broke the negativity attached to “singlehood” and rather raised the toast for the same, spreading joy and happiness everywhere.
It is an unofficial holiday that is known to be the largest shopping day; both online and offline, in the whole wide world. We can mischievously say that this day is “Anti- Valentine’s Day”.
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