De Laugh & Smile

5Romantic Holidays

Valentine’s Day is popular across the world, but in South Korea, it has a little twist. Unlike most countries where guys have to worry about flowers, candies, and cards, Valentine’s in Korea is all about the men. This is a day where women show the love by giving chocolates and gifts to their husbands/boyfriends. Of course, everything changes on March 14. Known as White Day, this is the holiday where men buy gifts for the girls, but there’s a catch: A guy is supposed to spend three times the amount of the gift he received on Valentine’s. And, as you might have guessed, the gifts are often in the color white.
However, these aren’t the only lovey-dovey days in South Korea. In fact, the 14th day of every month is a romantically themed holiday, or at least a day for reminding singles how unlucky they are. Some of these, like Kiss Day (June) and Hug Day (December) are pretty self-explanatory. January 14 is Diary Day, when couples and friends give each other blank diaries. The sappiness of Photo Day (September), when couples take photos of each other, is rivaled only by Yellow Day/Rose Day (May), when lovers dress in yellow and give each other, yep, roses. The saddest day of all is April 14, depressingly known as Black Day. This is when singles mourn their lack of love by eating “jajyangmyeon,” which are sticky, black noodles, all the while hoping to meet someone special before the next romantic holiday rolls around.

4Age

Traveling to South Korea is a bit like traveling into the future. The moment you step across the border, you automatically turn one year older. In Korea, a baby is one year old at birth, instead of zero as in most other cultures. And things get even trickier, since everyone has the same birthday . . . sort of. After the New Year passes, everyone in Korea automatically ages one year, even if they haven’t had their actual birthday yet. It gets even more complex for people who were born just a few days before the New Year. If a baby is born on December 31, it’d be one year old. However, after January 1, that same baby will automatically turn two.
So if you’re unsure of what your Korean age is, subtract the year of your birth from the current year and then add one. Or if someone asks your age, you could probably save a lot of hassle and just tell them what year you were born.

3The Biggest Church In The World

While the Yoido Full Gospel Church might not have the largest building in the world, it definitely has the biggest congregation. As of February 2013, this Seoul-based church had close to one million members. On any given Sunday, 200,000 of the faithful will attend one of the seven services, and that’s not counting the additional 200,000–300,000 watching on TV in other buildings and satellite churches.
To keep his spiritual flock spiritually fed, founder and pastor David Cho employs three orchestras, 12 choirs, hundreds of assistants, missionaries in 67 countries, and interpreters to translate his message into 16 different languages. If you want to hear one of his two Sunday sermons, you’ll have to show up a whole hour early, or you won’t be able to find a seat. Unfortunately, Pastor Cho might not be preaching much longer as he’s currently being investigated for breach of trust and tax evasion. He must have missed that whole “Render unto Caesar” part in the Bible.

2Baseball Was Established As A Political Move

Introduced in the early 20th century by Christian missionaries, baseball has become one of the most popular pastimes in South Korea, and there are several interesting differences between “yagu” and the American version. For example, teams aren’t named after cities but after corporations, so there are the Samsung Lions, the Kia Tigers, and the Hyundai Unicorns. Korean baseball games feature female cheerleaders and fans enjoy kim-bobs, which are rings of seaweed stuffed with crab, lobster, and sausage.
However, the most interesting thing about Korean baseball is its dark past as the tool of an oppressive military dictatorship. After staging a coup in the late ’70s, General Chun Doo Hwan declared martial law in South Korea. Chun wasn’t the most popular guy in the world, and he was constantly having to crush revolts and murder protesters. He even shut down all the colleges in South Korea to prevent dissent. When none of those strategies worked, Chun came up with a much more devious scheme.
The Korean Baseball Organization was established in 1981 as a way for people, especially young men, to let off steam. By encouraging people to put down their picket signs and pick up a pair of thundersticks, Chun was hoping to divert attention away from his regime. A former defense minister was appointed as the baseball commissioner, six teams were created by government-friendly businesses, and Chun started improving his image by throwing the first pitch at every game. People eventually got sick of him anyway, and he and his cronies were thrown into prison. Talk about striking out.

1Blood Type

In South Korea, blood is a big deal. It doesn’t just deliver oxygen to the rest of your body—it determines your personality. People in South Korea are automatically stereotyped thanks to their blood type. While this belief originated in Japan, it has taken a firm hold in South Korean culture, and it might even make a difference in who marries whom.
There are positive and negative traits assigned to each blood type. People with Type A are thought to be conservative and punctual, but they can be also obsessive, uptight, and a bit introverted. However, they think that cheating on their romantic partners is wrong and will thus be extremely loyal. People with Type B are a totally different story. While they have some good traits like creativity and passion, they’re also willing to cheat on their partners, lazy, and impatient. There’s even a South Korean movie called My Boyfriend is Type B, a romantic comedy about a Type A girl who falls for a Type B boy and has to deal with his impulsive nature.
As for Type AB, they’re supposed to be cool and under control, but they can be elitist, harsh, and judgmental. Type O means a person is ambitious and athletic. They want big things in life, and nothing is going to stand in their way. On the flip side, they’re pompous and egotistical, but once they decide to commit to a relationship, they’re generally pretty loyal. So if you ever visit South Korea, you might want to figure out your blood type first—someone is going to ask eventually.