On April 14th, Koreans celebrate the unofficial holiday called “Black Day” While the name sounds interesting and maybe even a little suspicious, the holiday is based around “love”, or rather the lack of romantic love in ones life. Black Day celebrates people who are single!
Black day is one of three “love” holidays celebrated in Korea, also including white day and Valentine’s day. In America, we are already aware of Valentine’s day. But White day takes place a month after Valentine’s day on March 14th and is where the males give gifts to the women, who had given them gifts on Valentine’s day. Then a month after in April, all the singles who were left out have the chance to celebrate their status.
“I always look forward to celebrating Black day with my friends,” senior Jessica You said. “It’s a fun unofficial holiday to look forward to for single people.”
People celebrate this day by eating a Korean dish called Jjajangmyun, or black bean noodles. Because of their dark color, they are to be eaten on this day. They are easy to find in any Korean restaurant, or even made, with chunjang sauce and hand-pulled noodles bought at your local Asian food store. Side note: while they are called black bean noodles, they do not at all taste like the black beans we know. Give them a try!
In addition to eating black bean noodles, Koreans wear dark clothing, and go out with their also-single friends, celebrating (or mourning) their lack of significant other.