Thousands of Asian Couples Get Hitched on 'Singles Day': 11/11/11

Couples are getting hitched in record-breaking numbers throughout Asia today (Nov. 11). In Singapore, 574 couples will wed — five times more than on a typical day — and in Hong Kong, 1,017 couples will marry, which is the most weddings in a single day in the city's history. Many other Asian cities are also experiencing unusually high volumes of marriages. Why? Because it's 11/11/11.

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There are two main reasons why Asians see today's date as perfect for tying the knot. First, numerology is extremely important in Chinese culture, and numbers that sound similar to words are believed to take on some of their meaning. The number 8, for example, is considered lucky because its pronunciation sounds similar to that of the word "wealth." Well, according to the Wall Street Journal, the pronunciation of the numbers "11/11/11" is similar to the Chinese idiomatic expression "one life, one lifetime" ( 一生一世, pronounced "yi sheng yi shi" in Mandarin), which means "forever."

That's reason enough for couples in China, as well as Hong Kong and Singapore, where the majority of the population is Chinese in ethnicity.

Secondly, because of all its repeating 1s, 11/11 has been celebrated unofficially as "singles' day" throughout Asia since the early 1990s, according to AFP. Thus, many couples have chosen the day to shed their single status.

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"We are getting married on the day of 'six ones'. We will no longer be single on the once-in-a-century singles' day," said Shanghai hotel manager Li Xue, 26, who moved up her wedding date so that it would coincide with the special date.

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