April 14: A ‘Black Day’ in Annandale–and a good day for jajangmyeon

By James Moon

You may think Valentine’s Day was over and done months ago, but for young Koreans, Feb. 14 was just the beginning. That’s because Koreans have a series of Valentine-themed informal traditions that go on for months, and Valentine’s Day is just the kickoff.

Valentine’s Day in Korea is a day when girls give chocolates to their sweethearts or crushes. A month later, on March 14, is so-called White Day, when the boys return the favor with other types of candies. How exactly this arrangement came about or why the latter is called White Day is anyone’s guess, but once a cultural phenomenon catches on, especially among school-age kids, it becomes an institution—and as such, it’s not without its critics.

“Many girls complain to guys about the candy,” explains Eunmi Oh, 23, who moved to Annandale last month from Seoul and who is not a fan of candy. “I tell guys, ‘Please give me chocolates.’”

And naturally, many Korean women dislike being forced to make the first move.

It doesn’t end with White Day, though. April 14 is Black Day, a day for young Koreans—those who didn’t receive chocolates or candy from admirers in the previous months—to get together with other dejected singles for an odd sort of lonely hearts’ event and eat an apparently sad-looking bowl of noodles topped with black sauce.

Black Day can be kind of depressing for some people, so young classmates often give sweets or arrange sweets to be given to their single friends on Valentine’s Day or White Day to cheer them up and to spare them the embarrassment of Black Day. Ms. Oh claims that she’s always received candies on White Day, but that doesn’t necessarily mean she’s never taken part in Black Day.

“Actually I got chocolate from a friend [on White Day], but one of my friends didn’t, so I went with her,” she recalls about going out for noodles on Black Day a few years ago. “The mood was very sad.”

Dongjoon Lee, 26, a Korean law student interning in D.C., says Black Day can be a kind of awkward situation for single guys as well. “I don’t like being in a restaurant and knowing the other people are single.”

But he likes the food, a storied bowl of black-sauced wheat noodles called jajangmyeon (pronounced “chah jahng myuhn”), which is eaten year-round in Korea, filling the same sort of social niche as pizza in America—with the messiness factor of spaghetti. The savory sauce’s signature color comes from a semi-sweet black soybean paste fried with onions and meat. So single people getting together with friends to eat jajangmyeon isn’t such a pathetic experience, according to Mr. Lee.

“They’re not that lonely. I see people enjoying that day,” he says. “Someone who is really lonely doesn’t get to celebrate that day.”

Koreans in Virginia aren’t as likely to observe the consecutive monthly customs as their young counterparts in the motherland. Some are probably aware of the traditions, but Koreans living here aren’t that immersed in that same student culture, especially in non-Korean schools.

Young Koreans from Korea like Ms. Oh and Mr. Lee [in photo on the right] tend to drift away from the themed dating rituals, especially after college. Mr. Lee says he stopped caring about the dating-themed days when he served in the military, a mandatory duty for all South Korean 20-something males. So jajangmyeon restaurants in Annandale might not have the same curious scene of dejected singles this Wednesday as the noodle joints in Korea. But that doesn’t mean no one will be observing Black Day.

“Sometimes it’s just an excuse to eat jajangmyeon,” Mr. Lee says.

April 14: A ‘Black Day’ in Annandale–and a good day for jajangmyeon

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