Irish Examiner view: Singles Day another event to splash out on

Chance for the unattached to buy themselves a gift 

Singles Day is unashamedly geared towards getting people to spend money. Picture: iStock

With Christmas looming on the horizon, it might seem a little excessive to have a particular day in November pushing us to spend even more, but that is clearly the purpose of Singles Day.

If you have only just begun to accommodate Black Friday as a shopping event, then you may not be quite as familiar with Singles Day, which falls on November 11.

Readers will have seen this week that this holiday began as an opportunity for unattached students to buy themselves a gift in a reversal of Valentine’s Day, but this offbeat beginning was soon taken over by corporate giants.

What may be surprising to many is the fact that the idea took off in China, and the corporate giant which commandeered the holiday was the Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba.

When Alibaba launched its first shopping event aimed specifically at Singles Day back in 2009, a 24-hour sale, it was hugely successful, and the holiday was here to stay.

There’s nothing inherently objectionable about a ‘new’ holiday being invented, not when a calendar can feature Boss’s Day (which falls on October 16) or even Administrative Professionals Day (celebrated in the last full week of April).

Even pre-existing though low-key occasions such as Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day were ruthlessly commercialised by the greeting card industry early in the 20th century. The fact that Singles Day is unashamedly geared towards getting people to spend money could be seen as refreshingly honest, at least.

What’s particularly interesting about the holiday’s growth in popularity is that it shows clearly, if subtly, the importance of China in the global economy.

In most countries, a casual celebration among a few students would hardly be noticed outside those students’ circle of acquaintances. But in this case, thanks to the power of one of China’s online shopping giants, it’s now a recognised date on the international shopping schedule. And a neat illustration of China’s influence on world culture in the broadest sense of the word.