Did you know about 11/11??

Every year on 11/11, your social feeds might suddenly fill with wild discounts, cryptic “Double 11” promos, and memes about being happily single. That’s Singles’ Day, a modern Chinese tradition that started as a tongue-in-cheek student celebration and turned into the biggest shopping day on the planet.

Here’s a quick, readable guide to its history and traditions, so you’re ready for November 11.

What exactly is Singles’ Day?

Singles’ Day (光棍节 Guānggùn Jié, literally “Bare Branch Festival”) is an unofficial Chinese holiday that celebrates people who are not in a relationship. It’s held on 11 November (11/11) because all those 1s look like four single people standing in a row.

Over time, the name “Singles’ Day” has sat alongside another nickname: Double 11 (双11), which is how most Chinese e-commerce platforms market it now.

Today, it’s:

a day of self-indulgence for singles,
a huge online shopping festival, and
increasingly, a mainstream shopping event that couples, families and even overseas shoppers happily join.

How Singles’ Day started: a dorm-room idea

The story begins in the early 1990s at Nanjing University in eastern China.

Around 1993, a group of male students, all single and living in the same dorm, decided to flip the script on feeling lonely.
They picked 11/11 as their unofficial holiday because “1” looked like a bare stick, Chinese slang for an unmarried man, and four 1s symbolised four singles.
They used the day to hang out, throw parties, eat good food, and celebrate being single instead of moping about it.

Word spread to other universities in Nanjing, then across campuses all over China. By the 2000s, Singles’ Day had become a widely recognised youth culture event, especially in big cities.

From student joke to global shopping phenomenon

The big plot twist came in 2009.

Chinese tech giant Alibaba (owner of Taobao and Tmall) saw an opportunity: November is a relatively quiet time between China’s October Golden Week and Chinese New Year, so they turned Singles’ Day into a one-day mega sale.

2009: First Singles’ Day promotion, just 27 brands, about 50 million RMB (≈ US$7.5–7.8 million) in sales.
A decade later, sales on Alibaba’s platforms alone had exploded to tens of billions of dollars, making it bigger than Black Friday + Cyber Monday combined.
Other platforms like JD.com and Pinduoduo piled in, and now the festival regularly generates over 1 trillion yuan in total online sales across major sites.

In recent years, Singles’ Day has stretched beyond a single day. Pre-sales and warm-up deals often start in mid-October, and promotions can run for weeks, turning “11.11” into the climax of a long shopping season.

Growth is slower now, and China’s economy has cooled, so consumers are more cautious and focus more on essentials and genuine discounts. But it’s still a massive barometer of Chinese consumer sentiment and a key moment for both local and global brands.

Traditions: how 11/11 is celebrated

Even though it’s all over the headlines for its sales numbers, Singles’ Day is still a cultural day for singles and young people. Here’s how it tends to be celebrated:

1. Treat-yourself shopping

The modern slogan could basically be: “If no one else is spoiling you, spoil yourself.”

Many people use the day to:

buy gadgets, fashion, home goods, and beauty products in big online hauls,
grab discounted essentials like groceries, cleaning products or appliances,
indulge in things they’ve had on their wishlist for months.

Brands play hard into this self-care angle, promoting Singles’ Day as a time to reward yourself for working hard.

2. Eating out and going out

Offline, Singles’ Day also has a social side:

Friends organise group dinners or hotpot nights.
Bars and clubs host Singles’ parties, games, or special events.
Some people even view it as a chance to meet someone new, through blind dates, dating apps, or themed events.

It’s a little ironic: a day for singles that can sometimes end with people… not being single anymore.

3. Little symbolic traditions

Some playful customs and ideas that pop up around 11/11:

“Anti-Valentine’s” vibe: In contrast to Valentine’s Day’s red hearts and couple-centric marketing, Singles’ Day is all about self-contentment and independence, and some even refer to it as an “anti-Valentine” holiday.
Green vs. red: You’ll sometimes see mentions of wearing green for Singles’ Day as a visual opposite to Valentine’s Day red, though this is more internet folklore than a strict rule.
“Bare branches” imagery: The original term 光棍 (guānggùn) literally means a bare branch, symbolising someone without a partner or “offspring” yet. Even though it used to be mildly mocking, younger generations have reclaimed it in a more humorous, self-accepting way.

Beyond China: a global 11/11

Thanks to cross-border e-commerce and global marketplaces, Singles’ Day has gone international:

Big retailers and platforms in Europe, the US, and Southeast Asia run 11/11 promotions, often simply calling it “11.11 Sale” or “Singles’ Day deals”.
Many global brands (think Apple, Nike, beauty giants, luxury labels) design specific campaigns and discounts aimed at Chinese consumers and, increasingly, at global audiences too.

At this point, someone might join Singles’ Day purely because of the deals, even if they’ve never thought about its origin as a celebration of being single.

Being single doesn’t mean you’re missing something. It’s just another chapter worth celebrating – and maybe, yes, worth treating yourself on 11/11.

And you? Are you going to grab the deal on 11/11?