White Day - 14/3 - Love holiday in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. White Day (Japanese: ホ ワ イ ト デ デ ー) is Love Day founded in Japan in 1978.
White Day is the Japanese version of Valentine's Day, which was celebrated a month ago, on 14/2.
On Valentine's Day, women bring men chocolate as a gift, which they buy in a store or make at home. If a woman prepares for a man chocolate at home "Honmei-Choko" (本命 チ ョ コ, "True Love Chocolate") as a gift for Valentine's Day, it is a symbol that he is the core choice. Chocolate bought at the store is "must-have chocolate" ("chalky-choco" (義理 チ ョ コ).
On White Day, the roles change. Men are the ones who give women chocolate back.
It is customary to give white gifts on White Day. The men who received chocolate return white chocolate to their wives. You can also give cookies, jewelry, lingerie and marshmallows, all in white.
Men also tend to give three times the value of a gift given on Valentine's Day (this is called Sanbai Gashi (三倍 返 し, "give back three times").
Why is White Day also Marshmallow Day?
One possible reason is that in 1965 a factory making marshmallows (which is white candy) offered men who received Valentine’s Day chocolate to give women back white marshmallows. Thus was given the name "Marshmallow Day" for this day. Then more manufacturers realized how much they could benefit from this tradition if they offered men a variety of white gifts and thus the name "White Day" was obtained.
Today it is more common to buy white clothes and jewelry.
For teenagers, it is customary for the boys to give a white ribbon to those they love on this day, even if they did not receive a Valentine's Day gift from it. If the girls are wearing the ribbon (on the hair, arm or bag), it shows that they feel towards the person who gave them the ribbon love back.
