Singles Awareness Day
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Part of a series on Valentine's Day. [View Related Entries]
Overview
Singles Awareness Day (S.A.D.) is a holiday for people who are not involved in romantic relationships as an alternative to Valentine's Day. Those celebrating the event are encouraged to wear the colors green or black to show contrast to the color red associated with Valentine's Day.
Background
It is unclear when and by whom the holiday was invented, but the earliest known mention of the term can be found on Luceo Magazine[2] in an article posted on February 16th, 2002. In the article, the author Aimee Monique Hale proposed that Valentine’s Day should be renamed to “Singles’ Awareness Day” in celebration of singlehood.
Cross-Cultural Variations
Because Valentine's Day is celebrated in many cultures around the world, there are numerous anti-Valentine events and faux-holidays observed by groups of singles around the world on the same day, particularly in East Asian cultures where the holiday is almost exclusively recognized as a romantic holiday, including the Otakus in Japan, the Solo Regiment in South Korea and the Loneliness Party in China.
Notable Developments
2005
There were few online discussions recognizing the Single Awarness Day as the anti-Valentine’s Day until February 15th, 2005, when Loving You Forums[5] member Pepe created a thread titled “Valentine’s Day = Singles’ Awareness Day.”
2006
On January 12th, 2006, the Singles Awareness website[4] was launched, which declared that the holiday would fall on February 15th instead of the 14th. On September 14th, 2006, an Urban Dictionary[1] entry for Singles Awareness Day was created by user misosoupaddict, defining it as a day that "reminds those who do not have a Valentine of their singleness."
2007
On February 13th, 2007, DeviantArtist[6] Son-Neko published a webcomic on how to survive Singles Awareness Day (shown below).
2008
On February 14th, 2008, the New York Times[3] City Room blog published an article about Singles Awareness Day and other backlashes to Valentine's Day.
2009
On February 2nd, 2009, YouTuber Ryan Mercer uploaded a video about celebrating Singles Awareness Day as an alternative to Valentine's Day. An ecard celebrating the day was posted to someecards[10] that year (shown below).
2010
On January 23rd, 2010, a Facebook[7] page titled "Valentine's Day = Singles Awareness Day" was launched, gathering upwards of 14,000 likes in the next four years.
2012
On February 0th, 2012, YouTuber hoorahjencar uploaded a Singles Awareness Day music video, which gained over 1.4 million views and 2,200 comments in the first two years.
2013
On February 13th, 2013, Redditor R3DMUSTARD submitted an image macro of a man crying while drinking Listerine mouth wash titled "Singles Awareness Day" to the /r/funny[8] subreddit. Prior to being archived, the post garnered more than 12,700 up votes and 250 comments.
2014
On February 10th, 2014, the CherryBombComedy YouTube channel uploaded a public service announcement parody video for Singles Awareness Day (shown below). On February 13th, the video was highlighted on The Huffington Post.[9]
2021
On February 13th, 2021, TikToker[11] @sarahhesterross posted an original song about the holiday, gaining over 150,000 views in a year (shown below).
Search Interest
External References
[1] Urban Dictionary – Singles Awareness Day
[2] Luceo Magazine – Singles Awareness Day
[3] New York Times – Will You Be My Anti Valentine
[4] Singles Awareness – Singles Awareness Day
[5] Loving You – Valentines Day = Singles Awareness Day
[6] DeviantArt – Singles Awareness Day
[7] Facebook – Valentines Day Singles Awareness Day
[8] Reddit – Singles Awareness Day
[9] The Huffington Post – Singles Awareness Day
[10] someecards – Valentine's Day Memes
[11] TikTok – sarahhesterross
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