Profiting from Love

Many of the secular holidays that we celebrate in the US are not celebrated in Korea.  Holidays such as St. Patricks Day, Cinco de Mayo, and other holidays are largely ignored in Korea outside of the international community.  However, one that is not is Valentines Day, but Korea does have a slightly different way to celebrate this holiday.  In fact they found a way to turn this day into three separate holidays: Valentines Day, White Day, and Black Day.  Where as in the USA love is expressed reciprocally with both the man and woman in a relationship buy each other gifts and candies, in Korea everybody gets their own day to feel special.  Here is how it works:

Valentines Day: February 14th
This is the man's special day.  On this day, woman treat the men to dinner and usually buy chocolates for their significant other.

My Valentine's Day Gift

White Day: March 14th
This is the day for the man to payback and show his love to the girl.  As a guy, it is a huge advantage going second in this exchange.  We get to see exactly what we are competing with, know exactly what we have to top, and have an extra month to do it.  I feel this had to be intentional.

Black Day: April 14th
Not wanting to leave out people who are not in a relationship they even created a day for singles.  On Black Day friends who are not in a committed relationship will gather and typically eat 짜장면, which is a noodle dish with a thick black sauce (also one of my favorite dishes in Korea).

짜장면

The motive for this is up for debate.  On one side you could argue that it gives each person their own day to feel special, rather than just blend it all together.  It is also nice as a guy, because you know exactly what you have to top and get a month to plan and prepare for it.  The more skeptical might argue that is only a ploy to spread the wealth out over 3 months and encourage more economic spending.  Whichever is the intended motive for the alteration of this holiday's traditions from its Western origins (perhaps its a combination of the two), it certainly gives more to look forward to.