To all East Asians, Happy White Day! This traditional holiday is not widely celebrated across the globe, but in some countries in Asia like Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan, it’s a very popular day to remember.

Illustration by Hetiru from DeviantArt

For starters, White Day happens a month after Valentine’s Day (April 14). In most of the countries mentioned earlier, people celebrate Valentine’s Day differently. Every February 14th, girls express their gratitude, sincerity and love through chocolates given to their friends, colleagues or to a person of romantic interest. In return, these people who received chocolates on Valentine’s Day are socially obliged to return the efforts given to them on the following month. China has it opposite; males give chocolates to females on Valentine’s then the reverse happens on White Day.

White Day for your waifu. Will you give chocolates to her today?

Presents can be anything from chocolates, marshmallows, other handmade confectionaries, jewelry, or even lingerie. In Japan, it’s necessarily important to give back more than the amount of what was given to you (return if not double, triple). Hence, White Day is a quite more expensive tradition than Valentine’s Day.

Single South Koreans eat jajangmyeon (black bean noodles) on April 14 to commemorate their singlehood. Image source here.

Interestingly, in South Korea, there’s another holiday that comes a month after White Day called Black Day, where those who didn’t receive any chocolates on both Valentine’s Day and White Day eat black bean noodles (jajangmyeon). It’s an informal holiday, but singles across their country eat these noodles to commemorate their singlehood.

How about in your country? Do you have any special romantic days apart from Valentine’s Day? Would you wish to have White Day celebrated as well? Tell us what you think in the comment section below!

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