Celebrating Valentine’s Day Around the World

Valentines Day celebrated around the world

It’s that time of year again, a time when the world is temporarily divided into two camps: the gooey-eyed smug lovers, and the cynical corner-shirkers. However you plan to spend this February 14, here’s how other people around the globe will be celebrating. Well, some of them.

Latin America

El Día del Amor y la Amistad (The day of love and friendship) is how much of Latin America celebrates the day of amour. The good thing for the lover-less at this festival is that friendship is considered just as important as love. Amigo secreto is their version of the Secret Santa, in which friends receive anonymous gifts of candy and balloons.

Catalonia

Catalonian lovers don’t actually celebrate Valentine’s Day as such. Instead, on March 23, La Diada de Sant Jordi (Saint George’s Day), this area of Spain becomes something of an oversize recommended reading event, with boyfriends and girlfriends exchanging books. Romance ain’t dead until they start swapping Kindle files.

South Korea

There’s something brilliantly twisted about the South Korean sense of humor. Although they celebrate Valentine’s Day very much like people in the States, this ‘White Day’ is followed on February 15 with ‘Black Day’, where those who did not receive any tokens of affection go to a local restaurant and eat black noodles – a public mourning of one’s love life. Ironically, this might lead to you meeting another nice black noodle-muncher, and be the beginning of a beautiful relationship. If not, it’s still classier than watching Love, Actually on your own, crying into some Häagen-Dazs.

Japan

Perhaps the only country in the world in which it is common for women to give men chocolates. It’s thought that this derived from a marketing executive’s typo when Valentine’s Day was first becoming commercial in the country back in the 1930s. That said, it is expected for the man to return the favor with a gift worth at least twice the value of the chocs. If he reciprocates with something of equal value, it’s the man’s cowardly way of saying “It’s over”.

China

Chinese Valentine’s Day (which happens in the late summer) is known as the Qixi Festival, or the “Night of Sevens”, and celebrates the legend of the cowherd and the weaver girl. In this fable, young cowherd Niulang and the weaver girl (Zhinü), who was the daughter of the Goddess, fell in love and married. On discovery of this, the furious Goddess forced Zhinü to return to her heavenly home, and on Niulang’s attempt to rescue his wife, scratched a river in the sky (the Milky way) to part the two forever. On Chinese Valentine’s Day, the two are said to briefly rejoin again. The Chinese also honor the more common Valentine’s Day on February 14.

Scotland

Although the Scots’ Valentine’s Day is similar to that of ours in the US, there are a couple of old traditions that spice up their February 14. At some parties, a game is played in which men write their names on a piece of paper, and place them in a hat. The girls then take it in turns to pick a name from the hat, this being her Valentine for the rest of the party. Another hit-and-miss custom declares that the first young man or woman you see that day becomes your official Valentine. Could lead to a happily ever after, but more likely to result in chaos.

2 Responses to “ Celebrating Valentine’s Day Around the World ”

1. anonymous says:

   February 1, 2012 at 11:28 pm

   Umm, actually that’s not what they do for Valentine’s Day in Japan. Yes, women give men chocolates (and they’re often handmade), but the men don’t have to do anything! But then, on March 14th, it’s White Day, where the men give women something in return.

   For more information, read this article:
   http://www.japan-zone.com/culture/valentines_day_white_day.shtml

   Reply
2. Dbakeca says:

   February 13, 2012 at 10:29 am

   Interesting traditions…loved the Scotland one…

   Reply