WHITE DAY

Men line up to do some last-minute shopping for White Day at Shinjuku Station in Tokyo on Friday morning.

White Day (Howaito Dē?) is a day that is marked in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China on March 14, one month after Valentine's Day.

White Day was first celebrated in 1978 in Japan. It was started by the National Confectionery Industry Association as an "answer day" to Valentine's Day on the grounds that men should pay back the women who gave them chocolate and other gifts on Valentine's Day. In 1977, a Fukuoka-based confectionery company, Ishimuramanseido, marketed marshmallows to men on March 14, calling it Marshmallow Day (Mashumaro Dē?).

Soon thereafter, confectionery companies began marketing white chocolate. Now, men give both white and dark chocolate, as well as other edible and non-edible gifts, such as jewelry or objects of sentimental value, or white clothing like lingerie, to women from whom they received chocolate on Valentine's Day one month earlier. If the chocolate given to him was giri choco, the man likewise may not be expressing actual romantic interest, but rather a social obligation.

Eventually, this practice spread to the neighboring East Asian countries of South Korea, China, and Taiwan. In those cultures, White Day is for the most part observed in the same manner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Day
http://www.japantoday.com/category/picture-of-the-day/view/white-day-2