Singles Awareness Day (or Singles Appreciation Day) is celebrated on February 15 each year.[1] It is an unofficial holiday celebratedbysingle people. It serves as a complement to Valentine's Day for people who are not married or in a romantic relationship. It is a celebration of love in all forms recognizing the love between friends, family and loving yourself.[2] Some people who observe Singles Awareness Day do so out of spite for Valentine's Day, as a Hallmark holiday, or for other reasons.[3]
Singles Awareness Day is also referred to as an antithesis of Valentine's Day, especially when celebrated on February 14.[3][4] It is also known by the acronym SAD particularly when negatively observed about the inability to find love.[citation needed]
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.[5][4][6]
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.[4][7]
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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[8] 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, they could use a day to celebrate singleness.[9] They chose February 15 as a protest against Valentine's Day and started selling candies and chocolates 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 State University where it got very popular. Because of this, February 15 was copyrighted in 2015 as Single Awareness Day,[10] and since then this day became popular all over the world.
