Valentine's Day in Korea: The Untold Secret

I discovered something funny this week. Valentine's Day is celebrated (and is about as much of a big-deal) in Korea - but in an awesomely different way. It turns out that women are the ones who are expected to give chocolate to men (and not vice-versa), on February 14th. Women get nothing, until a holiday celebrated exactly a month later, on March 14th, called 'White Day', when men are expected to give women 'non-chocolate' candies (i'm told that if someone gets you something on Valentine's Day, then you're expected to get something for them on White Day).

I'm not going to dwell on the political-incorectness of calling a holiday 'White Day', but I think it's pretty funny - have no fear though, there's also a Black Day.

Black Day happens a month after White day (April 14th), when, according to Wikipedia:

On April 14 (Black Day), those who did not receive anything on the 14th of Feb or March go to a Chinese restaurant to eat black noodles and "mourn" their single life.

haha.. you can't make that kind of stuff up.

Luckily for me, one of my adult-students gave me a very generous box of assorted chocolates (pictured above), so you won't be finding me at a Chinese Restaurant on April 14th. With the risk of Black Day out of the way, i'll be spending my Valentine's Day on yet another nerdly quest - going to watch a Live game of Pro-Level Starcraft players. I think I mentioned, awhile ago, that there are two TV stations here that only show Video Games being played (at a professional level!). Those games are filmed in front of an audience (for the gasps and cheers, no doubt!) - and y'know what? It'd be a shame if I spent a year here and never attended one.

Happy Valentine's Day!