March 14, White Day

White Day is a holiday started in Japan as a marketing strategy and was quickly borrowed by Korean marketing. Since both countries had and still have some strong ideas on male and female characteristics, both countries have two separated days for the two genders to demonstate or 'confess' their love. Valentine's Day is the day for women to 'confess' their love to their men, and only giving something chocolate is appropriate. On White Day, exactly one month later, men 'confess' their love to their women, but giving chocolate is deemed inappropriate; men must give candy. And for those unfortunate people who do not receive their respective chocolate or candy on Valentine's or White Day, they must gather with friends one month later - April 14 - and eat 자장면, noodles with a thick black salty soypaste sauce - and commiserate on their loneliness together.

This year I am saved from the horrendous 자장면 since I just happened to be in a downtown office when an office worker came in and offered me a roll of lifesavers. I was mildly surprised but as soon as he said "White Day" I happily took the candy roll and stuffed it in my pocket! Saved by a stranger!

These three days are nearly universally celebrated now in Korea, although Black Day is regarded a bit as a joke and yet for those who "suffer" the shame of not having a boy- or girlfriend on that day, it loses a bit of its jesting qualities. According to Marteen Meijer in his book "What's So Good about Korea, Marteen?" other days exist, but I have to say, they don't get the attention by the youth or the marketers as do the first three:

Valentine's Day (Feb 14) - girls give chocolates to boys to show their devotion
White Day (Mar 14) - boys give candy to girls
Black Day (Apr 14) - boys or girls who didn't receive chocolates or candy eat 자장면 to show their disappointment
Rose Day (May 14)
Kiss Day (June 14)
Silver Day (July 14) - boy-/girlfriends are introduced to parents, and may exchange silver rings
Green Day (Aug 14)
Music Day (Sept 14)
Wine Day (Oct 14)
Movie Day (Nov 14)
Hug Day (Dec 14)
Diary Day (Jan 14)

"The Girl-Son"

A True Story of Tradition Turned on Its Tail

Park Im-duk was born at about the turn of the 20th century (1896) to a Confucian scholar and his wife. Unfortunately, Im-duk was a girl-child and not the much-desired male offspring that would be the inheritor of both property and ritual rites. Even more unfortunately her 사주 - birth year, month, day and hour - were particularly strong. Strength was valued in men but a woman was to be meek and mild and subservient. Women were not to "wear the pants" as evident in the proverb "a hen must not crow". Imduk was born in the hour of the tiger, the day of the dragon, the month of the rooster, and the year of the monkey. In addition, she was born near mountains known as the tiger's lair in a village location believed as a home of a dragon, and so being born in such a place on the day of the dragon was a powerful sign. To combat the power of her 사주 for she was destined to be clever like the monkey, loud as the rooster, powerful as the dragon and raging like the tiger, her father carefully selected her name, Im-duk, which translated means "virtuous woman".

Im-duk's mother, Onyu, meant "meek" and Im-duk's name-meaning was also of a meek nature reflecting her gender. However, Im-duk's Confucian father died in a cholera outbreak when she was six, and Onyu, though an illiterate woman, was determined to give her daughter the education that Confucian society had denied herself and would also deny Im-duk. So mother and daughter moved to another village where Onyu disguised Im-duk as a boy, changed her daughter's name to In-duk meaning "benevolence" to reflect a new image and character to be tapped into, and sent her girl-son to school for a whole year as a boy.

In-duk never returned to her feminine name. She ended up attending Samsung Methodist Mission School for Girls, Ewha High School and Ewha College. She was one of the first women to graduate from college, during the Japanese colonial period too, which was shocking behavior for women to do at the time. She showed strength of mind throughout her life - from imprisonment after the March 1 Movement, 1919, to further education in the US to starting her own self-supporting school in 1964, Induk Vocational School for Boys which in 1980 divided into two institutions - the Induk Technical High School with over 2,000 male and female students and Induk Institute of Design with over 3,000 male and female students. If her father feared strength in his daughter due to beliefs in her birth hour, Park Im-duk a.k.a. In-duk certainly showed that strength during her extraordinary 84 years of unconventional life as the girl-son to her equally undaunted mother.

"Mud" Paintings in a Restaurant

옛날농장, Long Ago Playground, is a meat restaurant in the Hyehwa culture area. The menu specializes in grilled meat with multiple side dishes and a variety of traditional soju, Korean liquors, to complement the traditional meal with.


The heavy split log tables and benches lined the walls and each wall contained a different spark of sentiment from "long long ago", exemplifying the name of restaurant. The false mud walls were painted a smoky yellow with browns and ucher dry-brush paintings of traditional tomb iconography, for example, mythical stylized birds, hunters on horseback as portrayed in a famous tomb mural, and lowing cows in the mud and stone stable walls.

On another wall was a monk sitting astride a tiger (in perfect contentment as if he were going to the next world) and the famous storybook tiger smoking a long pipe.

The 농장버섯탕, mushroom stew, was spicy and loaded with a variety of mountain mushrooms. Side dishes included the ubiquitous kimchi, processed fish cakes, sweetened black beans, garlic stems with shrimp, a mountain vegetable, tiny anchovies, a sour white kimchi soup for cooling the mouth, a dipping sauce and then mixed grain rice. A very quality meal with great surroundings!

March 1, Independence Day

Korean Independence Day is referred to as Sam-il-nal, translated "3.1 Day". Three-one day refers to March as "three", the third month of the year, and One as the first day of the month. Obviously this day follows the solar calendar, which Korean officially borrowed in the Kapo Reforms of 1894-5 but didn't officially follow until later. Specific days in the war are commonly referred to by the solar month and day when that event occurred, for example, the Korean War began on June 25, 1950, and so it's referred to as the 6.25 War.

March 1 commemorated the March 1st Movement in 1919 when Koreans nationwide demonstrated peacefully for independence from the Japanese who had occupied their country and colonialized it since 1910. The Koreans were able through word-of-mouth to spread the time, date and place of peaceful gathering to voice their collective sentiments against being colonized. The Japanese were taken by surprise but not for long. They struck out to slaughter the peaceful demonstrators and then began arrests of all known people who had participated in the demonstrations. What began as an independence statement for their country initiated more Japanese reforms and suppression which lasted until 1945 when the the Japanese were finally thrown out of the peninsula.

Now, like U.S. citizens on the 4th of July, few citizens reflect on the blood price their national forebears gave so that Korean could be a free nation today. Now March 1 is a national holiday for rest and relaxation. For high school and university students, the March 1 holiday simply gives students one more day of holiday before the school year officially begins.