November 11th (Singles day)

When people think of November 11^th, they think about the sadness of Remembrance Day that honors all the dead soldiers in ww1. However, in China, November 11^th is a completely different holiday. The day is called 11 11 or double 11 in Chinese and it began by celebrating people who are single.

 Singles day is set on November 11^th because number 1 resembles people who are single. Even though it is called singles day; the holiday is also known for celebrating the last years of people being single with many couples being married on that day. The holiday has to become the largest shopping holiday in the world with a majority of shops online and offline having discounts and deals on their products. The popularity of the holiday has also inspired another shopping day 12 12 (December 12^th) that has no deeper meaning or history.

The event rivals the west’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but singles day usually beat the sale of both of these western holidays easily due to the large number and purchasing power of Chinese citizens. In 2018, Alibaba recorded that it had $330.8 billion in sales just off that one day, breaking the world record originally held by Alibaba in 2017. This trend is probably going to continue with the 2019 singles day being the largest one yet.

Freshmen Thomas H stated that “[He] will be trying to empty his whole shopping cart on Taobao on November 11th because the deals are too good to ignore. [He] will be buying a new headphone, a Segway and a power bank.”

Junior Roy S stated that [He] will be buying new shoes and a new phone on November 11^th due to some stores giving 60% discounts on their products. [He] will also buy many necessities that he would need in the next year due to it being cheaper on that day.