光棍节

Guānggùn Jié

(Single’s Day)

许多中国节日有数字命理的意义,光棍节是一个非常好的例子，每年的11月11日。 1-1-1-1这些数字,像一根根独立的棍子,启发了一些年轻人为他们是单身贵族而庆祝。

说到光棍节,要追溯到20世纪90年代的南京学生的故事。自那之后,这个节日便开始广为流传,遍布整个中国。一些商户会借此机会做一些促销活动。淘宝，网上购物网站，他们在光棍节这一天做的产品推广是众所周知的，从下图中你可以感受到他们的成功。

除了购物，年轻人会聚在一起吃饭或邀请他们所有单身的朋友一起开派对，希望在11月12日之一天会促成一些新的情侣。最起码，这是一个很好的机会可以了解到世界上其他一些单身人士的生活. 另外,与朋友一起分享单身生活，也可以得到很多的乐趣。

Pinyin

Xǔduō zhōngguó jiérì yǒu shùzì mìnglǐ de yìyì, guānggùn jié shì yīgè fēicháng hǎo de lìzi, měinián de 11 yuè 11 rì. 1-1-1-1 Zhèxiē shùzì, xiàng yī gēn gēn dúlì de gùnzi, qǐfāle yīxiē niánqīng rénwéi tāmen shì dānshēn guìzú ér qìngzhù.

Shuō dào guānggùn jié, yào zhuīsù dào 20 shìjì 90 niándài de nánjīng xuéshēng de gùshì. Zì nà zhīhòu, zhège jiérì biàn kāishǐ guǎng wèi liúchuán, biànbù zhěnggè zhōngguó. Yīxiē shāng hù huì jiè cǐ jīhuì zuò yīxiē cùxiāo huódòng. Táobǎo, wǎngshàng gòuwù wǎngzhàn, tāmen zài guānggùn jié zhè yītiān zuò de chǎnpǐn tuīguǎng shì zhòngsuǒzhōuzhī de, cóng xià tú zhōng nǐ kěyǐ gǎnshòu dào tāmen de chénggōng.

Chúle gòuwù, niánqīng rén huìjù zài yīqǐ chīfàn huò yāoqǐng tāmen suǒyǒu dānshēn de péngyǒu yīqǐ kai pàiduì, xīwàng zài 11 yuè 12 rì zhī yītiān huì cùchéng yīxiē xīn de qínglǚ. Zuì qǐmǎ, zhè shì yīgè hěn hǎo de jīhuì kěyǐ liǎojiě dào shìjiè shàng qítā yīxiē dānshēn rénshì dì shēnghuó. Lìngwài, yǔ péngyǒu yīqǐ fēnxiǎng dānshēn shēnghuó, yě kěyǐ dédào hěnduō de lèqù.

English Translation

Many Chinese holidays have numerological significance and Single’s Day Guānggùn Jié 光棍节 is a perfect example. It falls on the same day every year, November 11^th. The 1-1-1-1 in the date inspires some youth to celebrate their romantic independence on this day.

The holiday is typically traced back to students in Nanjing during the nineties. It has since expanded to all of China and some businesses will hold shopping promotions. Taobao, the online shopping website, is well known for their sales on Single’s Day and here you can get an idea of their success. This photo shows a very small part of their $3 billion USD revenue from Single’s Day in 2012.

Packages, most likely from online retailer Taobao, pile up at a delivery depot on November 13th.

Aside from shopping, young people will gather for dinner or a party and invite all of their single friends together in the hopes that there will be some new couples on November 12^th. At the very least, it is a good opportunity to realize that there are many other singles in the world and single life shared with friends can be a lot of fun.