Although there are holidays around the world (the domestic Singles Awareness Day on February 15, China’s Singles Day on November 11, and the UK’s Singles Day on March 11) that have similar sentiments behind them, here in the US, National Singles Day is less emphatic about the idea that there is something wrong with being without a significant other, as if it’s a condition to be treated. A good bellwether would be an individual who, though he or she may be of limited means, takes time to pamper. Making a small sacrifice to get a massage, to keep up an exercise regimen, or the like, conveys the attitude of National Singles Day: yes, someone is out there for you, but no, you’re not in a big rush.

Some guys were in quite a rush, quite some time ago. Stay with us: the original European settlers to North America, during the vast sweep west from the first landing points like Jamestown, naturally came into contact with the aboriginal tribes of what would become the United States. Grizzled veteran Ebenezer Sproat impressed the Ohio-area Native people so much with his height and stature that they nicknamed him “Hetuck,” meaning “eye of the buck deer,” or simply, “Big Buckeye.”

The name “buckeye” gradually came to denote Ohioans in general, and centuries later, in the 1980s, the Buckeyes Council created National Singles Week to “celebrate single life and recognize singles and their contributions to society.” As you see here on National Today, the idea has spread far and wide from the Buckeye State, and now what’s most remembered is September 22, to pack as much celebration into a “single” day (if you will) of that week as we can.

According to nationaltoday.com; nationaldaycalendar.com. Source of photo: internet