November 11 Holidays

Veterans Day marks November 11, 1918, when the Armistice ending World War I took effect at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month — established as a U.S. federal holiday in 1938 to honor all living U.S. military veterans, expanded from Armistice Day’s original WWI focus. Singles Day — 光棍节 — was invented by Nanjing University students in 1993 as a celebration of being single, choosing November 11 because four ones represent four single people — and transformed by Alibaba in 2009 into the world’s largest single-day shopping event, generating more than $84 billion in 24 hours. Armistice Day is observed across many Commonwealth and European nations as the original WWI ceasefire commemoration — observed with two minutes of silence at 11 a.m. in the UK, France, Belgium, Australia, and Canada. Metal Day was established in the Netherlands by Heavymetal.nl on November 11, 2010, to celebrate heavy metal music as a cultural force — the date chosen because 11/11 at 11:11 is maximally “metal.”