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Valentine's Day may not be the most romantic day of 2022.

Numerous couples in Singapore flocked to the Registry of Marriages (ROM) to get hitched on Feb. 22 (22/2/22).

A 22/2/22 marriage

At least 483 couples have filed to register their marriages at the ROM on Feb. 22, a ROM spokesperson told The Straits Times. 

This number was recorded on Jan. 24.

It is likely that the final number of couples getting married on that day is higher as couples had until Jan. 31 to file their marriage notice.

The ROM spokesperson said that there is an average of 58 marriages on a weekday, which means couples getting married on Feb. 22 make up almost nine times the usual number.

In the Singapore Department of Statistics' report on Marriage and Divorce in Singapore, there were 22,651 marriages registered in 2020, with 6,595 divorces in the same year.

The number of marriages and divorces decreased by 10.9 per cent and 8.7 per cent respectively from the previous year, however, it was noted that Covid-19 and the circuit breaker may have contributed to this decline.

Why this date?

There are some reasons why a couple may choose this specific date.

Firstly, 22/2/22 palindromic date which means it can be read the same backward as it does forward.

The last time this happened was 11 years ago on 11/1/11.

A date like this is never going to occur again, given that the next dates would be 33/3/33 or 44/4/44.

Secondly, the date falls on a Tuesday, the second day of the week. Which might be seen as adding to the cavalcade of two's.

Wedding planner Elaine Soh, from The Wedding People, told ST that Feb. 22 is an auspicious date in the Chinese calendar for weddings and engagements as even numbers are more favoured than odd numbers.

Lastly, it's a date that's easy to remember. So, couples no longer have excuses that they forget their anniversary.

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Photo by Samantha Gades on Unsplash.