Singles Awareness Day

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