Singles Awareness Day (or Singles Appreciation Day) is an unofficial holiday some celebrate on February 15 each year. It is an unofficial

holiday A holiday is a day or other period of time set aside for festivals or recreation. ''Public holidays'' are set by public authorities and vary by state or region. Religious holidays are set by religious organisations for their members and are often ...

celebrated by

single people In legal definitions for interpersonal status, a person who is single is an individual not in a committed relationship, married, or part of a civil union. Reasons people remain single People may be or remain single for a variety of reasons, in ...

. It serves as a complement to

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring a Christian martyrs, martyr named Saint Valentine, Valentine, and ...

for people who are not

married Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

or in a romantic relationship. It is a celebration of love in all forms recognizing the love between friends, family and loving yourself. Some people who observe Singles Awareness Day do so out of spite for Valentine's Day, as a

Hallmark holiday In the United States (and elsewhere), a Hallmark holiday is a holiday that is perceived to exist primarily for commercial purposes rather than to commemorate a traditionally or historically significant event. Background The name comes from Hallma ...

, or for other reasons. Singles Awareness Day is also referred to as an

antithesis Antithesis (: antitheses; Greek for "setting opposite", from "against" and "placing") is used in writing or speech either as a proposition that contrasts with or reverses some previously mentioned proposition, or when two opposites are introd ...

of Valentine's Day, especially when celebrated on February 14. It is also known by the

acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...

SAD particularly when negatively observed about the inability to find love. The United Kingdom has two days attributed to highlighting single status. Since Single Awareness Day spells SAD and a group of dating experts wanted to highlight a more positive tone, they established National Singles Day. It is celebrated on 11 March with the aim to empower those who identify themselves as single. On Singles Awareness Day, single people gather to celebrate or to commiserate in their single status. Some want to remind romantic couples that they don't need to be in a relationship to celebrate life.

History

Valentine's Day is celebrated every year on 14 February, and the next day on 15 February, Singles Awareness Day is celebrated. It is said that Single Awareness Day was born because of social isolation. In 2001, a high school student named Dustin Barns decided to form a group with his friends so that instead of wallowing in the sorrows of being

singles Singles are people not in a committed relationship. Singles may also refer to: Film and television * ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series * ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe * ''Singles'' ...

, they could use a day to celebrate singleness. They chose February 15 as a protest against Valentine's Day and started selling candies and

chocolates Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavor other foods. Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocessed, they ta ...

at a huge discount. The aim was to inform as many people as possible about this day. Dustin passed this tradition from high school to

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

State University where it got very popular. Because of this, February 15 was copyrighted in 2015 as Single Awareness Day, and since then this day became popular all over the world.

History

See also

References

Further reading