Authorities urged to allow marriages on Feb 2

Many soon-to-be brides and grooms in China are calling for civil affairs authorities to work one extra day on Feb 2, a Sunday, so they can tie the knot on the special day, a perfectly symmetric date.

Feb 2, 2020, is written as 20200202 on the Chinese calendar, and Chinese people often like to get married on an even date as they believe that good things come in pairs.

In a response to one citizen's appeal to allow people to get marriage certificates on Feb 2, the Wuhan City Bureau of Civil Affairs in Hubei province said recently that people can apply online to get married on that Sunday.

Zhou Shanping, head of the bureau's social affairs department, said many people have applied to get married on Feb 2 and all 15 marriage registration offices in Wuhan will work that day.

He added, however, that though marriage is one of the most important events in people's lives, if everyone gets married on the same day, that day becomes less special.

Xiamen City Bureau of Civil Affairs in Fujian province said that all marriage registration offices at the city will also work on Feb 2, according to Xiamen Daily.

The hashtag "There is a rare symmetric date in 2020" had been viewed 320 million times by Tuesday, with many netizens expressing that they want to get married on Feb 2.

The Chinese pronunciation for 2020 is similar to "love you, love you", adding special meaning to the year and the date.

Liu Yue, 26, said she will seriously consider getting married on Feb 2 if the civil affairs authorities in her hometown in Baoding, Hebei province, also work on that day.

It will be very special to get married on Feb 2, since it is rare to encounter such a symmetric date, she said.

"A wedding is a very important ceremony, and a special date adds to the significance of the occasion," she said. "That's why people want to get married on Valentine's Day, or on May 20－"520", whose pronunciation in Chinese sounds similar to 'I love you'."

However, Liu's soon-to-be husband, Kang Hao, disagrees.

"Any date is more or less similar to me to get married," he said. "I prefer to get married on a public holiday, since both of us work in Beijing and we need to get married in our hometown in Hebei."

Chen Lina, who plans to wed her boyfriend in March, said she will not consider getting married on Feb 2.

"I think there's no magic day that is going to be better than all the days of the year," she said. "Instead of getting married on such a special date, I prefer to get married on dates that are special to me and my boyfriend, like a birthday, the first day that we met, our first date, or the first time we kissed."

For every couple, the process of choosing the wedding date is completely unique, and that's part of what makes your wedding date so special to you, Chen said.

Choosing a wedding date can be a little bit like putting together a puzzle. You have to find a date that fits with your schedules and the schedules of your loved ones, while also keeping season, availability and budget in mind, she said.