With the passing of 2025’s Valentine’s Day, we reflect on the holiday and the impact on Koreans. Valentine’s Day has been celebrated here since the 1980s by young couples and newlyweds. Valentine’s Day is the day that young women give gifts to men, typically chocolates or things of that nature. It’s also common for couples to go out for dinner or other activities.

Limited decorations are seen around Seoul, mostly limited to simple things in red color such as a strong of hearts. It’s really only at convenience stores and department stores where chocolates and candy are sometimes setup outside (very common in the 2010s).

There are three “love” holidays on the 14th:
2/14 – Valentine’s Day – young men receive gifts
3/14 – White Day – young females receive gifts (Japan and Korea)
4/14 – Black Day – single people go out and eat black-bean noodles to celebrate/cry about their single hood (Korea-only)

블랙데이 beullaek-dei – Black Day
짜장면 jjajang-myeon – Korean-style (Chinese) black bean noodles.

For more vocabulary, here’s our post on dating.

And our post on White Day.

And our post on Black Day.