Another Valentine’s Day.
Malls and shopping centers are full of pink decorations.
Chocolates, flowers, gifts…
The pure idea of celebrating love has turned to be one of the most successful marketing strategy in the world.
Yes, on this day, thousand of couples will buy things with less thought about the price.
Congratulations ! Brilliant marketers !
Let us be honest to ourselves, how many of you who has couple ( husband / wife / boyfriend / girlfriend ) but celebrate Valentine’s Day with someone other than your couple?
Other than? Wait… before you start to think about something negative…
What I meant was… celebrating Valentine’s Day with parents, brothers, sisters, close friends, or maybe spending that love day in an orphanage, with some less-fortunate children.
How many of us actually do that?
So how about spending this year’s Valentine’s Day a bit different?
Humans are social creatures that can not live without others.
Each and every one of us mean the world to someone.
Just to share, Japan has a unique Valentine tradition compared to other countries.
In most countries, boys give something to the girl they like.
In Japan, it’s girls’ role to give. Usually chocolate. Considered better if it is hand-made.
There are two kinds of Japanese Valentine’s chocolate: love chocolate and thankful chocolate.
Love chocolate (honmei choco) is given to the person she likes, or to parents.
Thankful chocolate (giri choco) is given to a friend or other people because of social obligation.
If a boy receives a love chocolate from a girl, that means he opened his heart to her (does not necessarily thatthey will end up as lover, but at least the girl believes that she has a chance of winning his heart).
Then, on March 14 (called White Day), it’s the boy’s turn to give something to the girl(s) who gave him chocolate. Though not acknowledged by everyone, it is believed that the value of White Day gift should be three times the value of the Valentine’s chocolate. Popular gifts for White Day are white chocolate, cookies, marshmallows, stuffed animals, jewelry and even underwear.
Lol. See what I meant by “successful marketing strategy” ?
Okay, enough about Valentine’s Day. While we are on this topic, lastly I would like to ask you all to spend a bit of your time to visit this website of HDI Foundation.
It is a charity organization trying to help Indonesian children in poor areas to receive proper education by building schools and training teachers. Go there, read, and see what you can do to help. I know the people who organize this organization personally, therefore I can be sure that donation money will reach the children.
Robert
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