Singles Day falls on every November 11th, and as the name indicates, this relatively new holiday is one exclusively for people who are still living the single life. I was a bit surprised when I googled 'Singles Day' on the Internet, to find that China is the only country in the world that has set aside a special day for singles to celebrate their lives. To find out more about this celebration, read on.

每年的11月11日是“光棍節”。節如其名，這個新鮮的節日是專門為那些還過著單身生活的人們設立的。我在谷歌上搜索一下，驚訝地發現中國是世界上唯一一個專門為光棍們設立節日的國家。來一起了解一下這個節日吧。

Origin of Singles Day

節日起源

An old story goes that once there were four single men, leading very boring lives. None of them were married, or had lovers, or did anything exciting. They just sat around all day and played Mahjong.

故事從四個過著單調生活的單身漢說起。他們沒有人結婚，連女朋友都沒有，日子過得無精打采，終日打麻將度過。

One day they played Mahjong from 11 in the morning until 11 at night. During the game, no matter who won, the winning card was always the 'four columns' card (the card shows four independent, parallel columns in two lines). Even more of a coincidence, it was Nov 11, or 11/11. In order to commemorate the day, they nicknamed it Singles Day.

有一天他們打麻將從早上11點打到了晚上11點。奇妙的是，不管誰贏，都贏在了“四條”上。更加巧合的是，這一天正是11月11號。為了紀念這一天，他們給它命名為“光棍節”。

University culture

大學傳統

Singles Day was first celebrated at various universities in Nanjing, capital city of Jiangsu Province during the 1990s. It got the name Singles Day because the date is comprised of four "ones". These college students have since graduated, and carried their university tradition into society. Singles Day is now a special day for all fashionable youths.

光棍節最先在90年代的江蘇南京各大高校興起。之所以叫“光棍節”是因為這一天的日子有四個光棍一樣的“1”。大學生們畢業了，把這個傳統帶到了社會上，光棍節就成了時尚青年們的一個特殊節日。

The main way to celebrate Singles Day is to have dinner with your single friends, but it's important that each person pay their own way to show their independence. People also hold 'blind date' parties in an attempt to say goodbye to their single lives.

主流的慶祝方式就是和光棍朋友們一起搓一頓，而且一定要實行AA制。為了脫離單身，人們也會舉辦相親會，介紹單身男女認識。

（來源：新東方? 編輯：Julie）