“What the WHITE is going on?” is what a clueless man would loudly exclaim, with both hands on his head and mouth widely open – as though a fish waiting for bait – in the streets of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China on the 14th of March.
What an ‘unfortunate’ day to tour these amazing places if the significance of it is unknown – especially to a man with a spouse, on a get-away: talk about utmost embarrassment. Imagine this: a man plans to surprise his beloved with a laudably romantic dinner for two – lavender fragranced candles, dimmed lights, and a typical romantic meal – only to find out that most men are running around with white chocolate, white marshmallows, white candy, white cookies, and other white accessories like: jewellery, bags, lotions, and lingerie! A sane man would ask: “What is this, Valentine’s Day?”
The answer to that would be a banging NO! It’s White Day!
Unlike madam Valentine’s Day, this is a one of a kind day where men appreciate the effort that women have made in showing them extra affection – through their gifts – on Valentine’s Day. Yep, you heard correctly; women give gifts to the man they are in love with, or they secretly admire on Valentine’s Day.
Every female loves to be swept off her feet by sweet messages like: ‘I love spending time with you; you complete me or when I’m with you every experience seems better than the last one.’ However, the ladies from these countries would unquestionably not appreciate: ‘I don’t need you to get me anything for Valentine’s Day, you’re everything I need.’ Simply because White Day is celebrated the month after Valentine’s Day! Could have fooled her, right?
Which man would just take, take, take and take from a lady without specially reciprocating the gesture? Definitely not the men who worked in the National Confectionery Industry Association in the 1970s: The Ishimura Manseido. This company saw it best that every men (who received a Valentine’s gift) respond with a gift too. It happened to be white marshmallows, thus calling it White marshmallow day.
“Uhhh, I don’t eat marshmallows, Ishimura.” is what a poor marshmallow disliking lady would have said – of which is quite reasonable – before they made it open-ended and called it White Day. Any of the traditional white confections and other white accessories could be received by women. Imagine the heartbreak of having a rejected marshmallow, simply because the lady doesn’t eat or perhaps like them, what a horrid experience. This tradition initiated from Japan and as a flu spreads, White Day spread to the other three countries and is slowly spreading to other countries like Tokyo.
Charles M. Schulz once said: “All you need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” While this so lovely and romantic statement has become an exercise to treasure, for some it is an overly interpreted obligation. As per tradition, women don’t just randomly pick any chocolate on Valentine’s Day, but EXPENSIVE ones! Why would they expect a cheaper version in response? Oh and honey, they know the most expensive white gifts to perfectly capture their hearts: the bigger, more expensive, and instagrammable, the better. Why not? It’s only for a day.
Over the years, this day has brought that cringing obligated feeling and pressure to most men, of which is highly wide of the mark. A slab of chocolate is not love, but is symbolises of the internal regard brought out to the surface, so that when every bar melts in the mouth of the recipient, the sentiment is warmly recognised.
Ladies have a tendency to socially show off – more of compete, if you ask me – what they perfectly know another lady also wants to have out there. Just picture the social commotion of happy and competing hearts on that special day: posted selfies of their significant others standing in long queues for their grand ‘surprises’, with captions or #tags of OMG babe, ‘I hope it’s not too expensive’, accompanied by star struck emoji’s. At the end of the day, love should not waver.
It would be very shallow for any country or globe to have a significant date celebrated yet its celebration brings no profit to the market: all play and no gain. This is a day that confectioneries look forward to, for more profit and higher sales. Their business books also need a bit of TLC after all. So this type of a tradition is not a silly love commotion, it is a spread of love in various ways: transportation systems, businesses, workers, and last but not least the ladies receive a lot if love, in various ways.
So if you’re a guy and you’re ‘coincidentally’ looking to impress your significant companion in one of these countries on the 14th of March, in the years to come, you need to play by the cards and get with the White programme.
| By: Nolwazi Charmaine Nkosi |
