The 14th Of Each Month Starting In February And Then Carried On In March and April!

A very interesting tradition in Korea begins February 14th every year. Of course, for us it is Valentine's Day. For the Koreans it is also the same kind of day except they call it "love day."

The tradition here is actually the reverse of what we do in the West. That is, the women here buy chocolate for the men or buy something romantic for them. Some of the men will take their ladies out for a nice dinner or do something special for them. (Hopefully its not a back-flip where they land on their head or something).

Then, the next month on March 14th, there is "White Day." This is when the men give the ladies chocolate. It actually started in Japan and as far as I know from reading up on the matter, it was a ploy by Japanese chocolate companies to promote their products and to shift excess chocolate that was left over from Valentine's Day!

The next month on April 14th is referred to as "Black Day or Jajangmyon Day." This is supposed to be for anyone that has no significant other (single I suppose), and it is celebrated by eating a traditional Korean meal that consists of black sauce and noodles mixed together. I guess the colour 'black' has a negative connotation on this day!

It is called "Jajangmyon" and is actually eaten all year round and is a very popular Korean dish. It is however, cooked in a lot of oil and is high in fat, although I must say, it tasted pretty damn good.

So there you are; The days of the 14ths celebrated in Korea. Of course the worst of the bunch would be April 14th as you are 'all alone' if you celebrate this day with another person that is 'all alone!" Hehe.

There is one other day of the year that is very popular here; November 11th. It is referred to as "Peppero Day." That translates loosely as 'Stick Day." People give each other chocolate, friends and family and anyone really, to celebrate the date, which is the 11/11..... get it?

Again, this started in Japan as another ploy to sell more chocolate and to tell you the truth, most of the peppero chocolate that you get, tastes like really really cheap stuff! It is sold all year round, but is given out especially on November 11th.

All the chocolate is packaged in the shape of sticks, some thick and some thin, but all the 'peppero" chocolate looks the same. It is a big thing in the schools here where the students give their teachers the chocolate as well as their friends. Kind of a cool day to tell you the truth. I ended up giving most of mine away the next day!