Singles’ Day 2024

The eleventh of November, or 11.11, started as a celebration of single life in China and is now one of the largest shopping days in the world.

A Tribute to Flying Solo

The idea of setting a day aside to celebrate single life is thought to have started in a Chinese university in the early 1990’s. November eleventh (11.11) was chosen because the date consists of all ones, with each digit said to resemble a bare stick—Chinese slang for a single man.

Singles’ Day grew from an informal holiday to a major shopping event in 2009, when Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, decided to feature 11.11 for online shopping and entertainment events.

Double 11, as it has become known in China, has since grown into a weeks-long promotional frenzy starting in mid-October. This resulted in the largest shopping event in the world, with around 150 billion USD in Singles’ Day sales, dwarfing the performance of Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US.

The day of love with a dark history

Gifts, Parties, Concerts, and Dates

For many Chinese people, Double 11 is a day for gift-giving, parties, concerts, and, ironically enough, blind dates. In fact, Singles’ Day has become a popular day to end one’s single status and get married.

In recent years, the Singles’ Day concept has become popular in other nations of Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia, while some form of singles celebrations have begun to appear (usually connected to sales) in countries like the United Kingdom, which marks the informal observance on March 11.

While we diligently research and update our holiday dates, some of the information in the table above may be preliminary. If you find an error, please let us know.