Ahhhh yes, love is once again in the air, your beau has sent you more chocolates than (s)he’ll ever find out you didn’t eat and that mysterious brown mold collection from Valentine’s Day isn’t getting any smaller. In the spirit of the infamous White Day - and just in case you were living under a rock - let us take an enlightening journey to the other V-Days of East Asia.

Japan and Korea
While Valentine’s Day in North America might be a simple affair involving a guy and a girl expressing love for one another in the form of chocolates and flowers, it has become a women-only phenomenon in Japan and Korea—where the typical average Japanese girl can look forward to going broke by buying almost 20 boxes of chocolates for her significant other, male co-workers and female friends. This is partially due to the fact that women in Japan are often obligated to give, well, “obligation chocolates” (giri-choco) to her co-workers, “prospective winner chocolates” (honmei-choco) to her significant other and “friend chocolates” (tomo-choco) to her female friends, along with random assortments of ridiculously overpriced gifts. The amount of love to dish out can be a potentially devastating affair of chocolaty goodness and long days at the department store. Cheapest candies for the co-workers, most expensive for soulmates, of course.
 
White Day
However, it’s all love well spent in that while every guy in Asia knows what Valentine’s Day is all about, they also know that love is not free, not since 1978, actually. A certain White Day (March 14th) has popped up in Japan and soon afterwards infected Korea and Taiwan as a day of returning all of one’s undeserved love in the form of 3x the damage on your wallet. Received a lot of chocolates last V-Day? Maybe an expensive tie, some nice new shoes… tough luck, buddy, on White Day it’s every receiving male’s social duty to buy a gift three times the worth of whatever gift(s) he received earlier. That’s right - Got giri? Got social obligation.

White Day was previously known as “Marshmellow Day,” but unfortunately, said treat is now out of style with the rise of expensive white chocolate, champagne and other bank-breaking goodness.
 
Black Day
Think you dodged the bullet my lovelorn friend? Well, think again, because Korea has gone as far (too far) as naming the upcoming April 14th as their “Black Day,” duly alotting a day for singles to feel sorry for themselves, rather than celebrate a well-deserved slasherfest. A part of the SAD (singles awareness day) confederation of death and despair, Black Day manages to provide the time for men (or women), who didn’t receive any chocolates on Valentine’s Day (or White Day), to eat black bean noodles (Jjajangmyeon) with all of their other bachelor(ette) friends. Yes, even getting giri chocolate (although you’ll have to make your way to Japan for that) may be better than experiencing a black day in Korea.

Tasty bowl of rejection?

Taiwan and China
Rejoice, those of you in Taiwan get to enjoy three V-Days (being a fusion of Chinese and Japanese culture), all of them suffocatingly obnoxious. Western Valentine’s Day is on February the 14th, White Day is on White Day, and China’s Valentine’s Day (牛郎 織女) is celebrated on August 26th (seventh day of the seventh month on the Chinese calendar) this year.

Long story shorter: Looking up at the skies on August 26th day, one will find a farmer crossing the night sky (a bright star in the constellation Aquila) in a journey to reach a solitary Weaving Maid (the Star Vega). Legend has it that the maid, the daughter of the emperor/queen mother (immortals), fell in love with the farmer. However, mortals and immortals are not allowed to love each other. This prompted the Queen Mother to punish the two by separating them onto opposite sides of the silver river (the Milky Way). However, she allows the two to meet every year on July 7th of the lunar calendar—on a bridge of magpies.

How very depressing. Fortunately, a magical, flying immortal ox I failed to mention has also been thrown in there to keep things fresh, should you look up the tale.
 

Random White Day Facts
 
Most Appreciated White Day Gift: White flowers and a card (?!)
Worst White Day Gift: White underwear (hehe)
What most people (men?) think of White Day: Not needed
 
Have a Very Happy White Day from Ningin!