Little-known special things about Singles' Day on November 11th.
"Singles' Day" on November 11th is a day dedicated to single people, originating in China and later spreading to other Asian countries. However, few people know that this day has quite a few special aspects.
Image of the number 11
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China's "Singles' Day" or "Singles' Festival" is an unofficial annual holiday celebrated on November 11th. Why November 11th? Because the numbers resemble lonely sticks, symbolizing solitude.
24-year history
It is believed that the first "Singles' Day" originated in 1993 at Nanjing University (China), where a group of students gathered to celebrate their loneliness and chose November 11th as their day of solitude. From there, the trend spread throughout China and Asia.
A day of fun and relaxation.
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"Singles' Day" on November 11th is a day for fun, food, and shopping sprees. The favorite snack on this day is fried dough sticks (quẩy) because they resemble the number 1. People usually eat between 2 and 4 of them.
Huge discounts today!
This is also an opportunity for people to shop to their heart's content, as e-commerce giants like Alibaba choose November 11th to offer massive discounts. This trend started in 2009 when Jack Ma decided to drastically reduce prices on Taobao, and many other companies began to follow suit.
Fashion and electronics are popular items.
On November 11th, people often take advantage of the opportunity to shop for electronics, clothing, and health care products.
Rapid growth rate
Between 2012 and 2015, single-day sales revenue increased from $3 billion in 2012 to $14.3 billion in 2015.
Overtime work is happening all over China.
While customers benefit from discounted shopping, this is also a time when many Chinese workers have to work overtime and extra hours.
It is estimated that around 1.7 million shipping and packing workers are employed to move 760 million orders from 5,000 different warehouses.
Initially intended only for men.
Originally, Bachelor's Day was only celebrated by men, hence its name. However, it has now become popular for both genders. People also often go on blind dates on such days.
Hashtag "I won't buy anything today"
With online shopping becoming increasingly popular, many people have used the hashtag "I won't buy anything today" on Weibo or Facebook.
For them, this is a day for singles, not a day for shopping.
