Alexander's

Funny things happen at the intersection, when Asian culture gets mixed with the European traditions.[^1]

In Europe everyone recognizes the 11^th of November as a funny date because of the many 1's it contains. This is (probably) why in Christian believe it marks the beginning of the funny season -- the carnival.

And really -- if I stare at the many ones long enough -- it looks like a group of people standing together wearing funny long nosed masks (or hats, depending on how you write a "1").

But if you write the date in Kanji, there are suddenly a lot of single horizontal strokes. Each by its own and without a partner -- quite lonely. Not a funny group hurdled around a central point (most likely a Glühweinstandl[^2])

Therefore in China the 11.11. is considered to be a singles day.

To add to the guiding theme of singe sticks, singles eat "Pocky"[^3] on this day. This is because Pocky are usually enjoyed one stick at a time.

Compare that ingenuity to some boring thing like Valentines Day -- which by the way has a raised chance of breakups and you can hopefully see why this mashup of cultures is really interesting to me.

Next year -- 2011 -- there is an extra pair of single sticks in the date! So they decided to call the day "God of the Sticks"[^4] -- which adds yet another interesting meaning in Taiwanese.

[^1]: No I'm not talking about some fat American guy dressing up like a cute and super slim Japanese high school girl, although this also funny (in a very disturbing way!) [^2]: A place where delicious hot spiced wine is sold during the cold winter nights. [^3]: Pocky -- a new and totally unrelated invention -- are small edible chocolate covered sticks. [^4]: 神棍 for all of you that can read Kanji.