Korea celebrates Valentine's Day on February 14th, just like America. The actual celebration is a little bit different though. It's the first in a three part series of romantic holidays. Valentine's Day in Korea is for the guys. The girls give the guys chocolates. The guy can accept the chocolates and then he has a month to decide if he likes her or not.
This brings us to our next Korean holiday...White Day! That's today, March 14th. So all the ladies who gave out gifts a month ago on Valentine's Day are patiently waiting for chocolates and a more expensive gift in return. If the guy gives you a gift, he's totally into you. If you get nothing in return then...womp womp. Don't worry though, there's still another day for all the single ladies. Cue Beyonce.
The third holiday is Black Day. This day is April 14th, a month after White Day. So...if you were the unlucky lady who did not receive a gift back on White Day, or you just didn't find a Valentine this year, this day is all about you! On this day, all the single people get together and eat jajangmyeon, or noodles with black bean sauce. Eating these noodles is supposed to signify the fact that you're single and hopefully a beautiful boy will walk into the restaurant you're in and see you eating your noodles, and fall in love with you. That brings us to the end of our three part romantic holiday, but there's more!
The final romantic holiday that's not really linked to the previous three is Pepero Day. (Except it's really not even the final romantic holiday. Even Christmas is a couples holiday here. These people love love.) Pepero Day is on November 11th every year. Pepero sticks are little cookie thing that have been dipped in chocolate. This day is on 11/11 because the pepero sticks resemble the number 1. It's basically like a miniature Valentine's Day where you give your significant others Pepero Sticks.
It was great being in Lotte Mart on Tuesday watching all of the guys in line with their chocolates and huge gift baskets prepare for White Day! Boys are the same all over the world, they wait until the very last minute to buy the gifts! haha
Today, some of my little angel students even gave me candy! They sure do know the way to my heart! Those precious little angels! They were also all hyped up on sugar. Holy cow. I thought they were wild on normal days. Note to self: Never EVER try to be a nice teacher and give them candy. This will backfire so fast!
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| Candy from White Day! I had more, but I ate it before I took a picture. |
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| This is actually from a few days ago. I made them say something they liked. Two of these little |
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| And this happened in between classes! |
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| And this... |
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| And this...in honor of White Day! |
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| my sweet 5/6 graders! |
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| They loved this! They were laughing for a good 5 mins after this! |
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| Haha! They said, "Teacher!! No!!! Ugly!!" |
And to top it all off, on my walk home there was a group of 4 high school boys walking by. One said, "Hello, nice to meet you!" and the other one said, "You are pretty!" haha These kids. I think English teachers come over here and only teach them two phrases, because that's all I've ever heard these kids say. haha My new goal is to teach them a phrase other than 'nice to meet you' and 'you are pretty.' We'll see how that goes!
Happy White Day, America!
-Kyla
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