2026.02.17
Did you say, “Happy Galentine’s Day”??
I hope you all had a nice Valentine’s Day last week! Did you eat a lot of chocolate? I love chocolate so Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite days of the year. Chocolate is definitely connected to Valentine’s Day, isn’t it? But it seems like the tradition of giving chocolate has really changed a lot since I first came to Japan thirty-six years ago. At that time, many women gave chocolate to the men in their office on February 14. Later, ‘giri-choco’ changed to ‘tomo-choco,’ and people started giving chocolate to their friends. Recently, people often just buy chocolate for themselves, or ‘jibun-choco.’ I think it’s great that people can feel free to give chocolate to whomever they want, even themselves, on Valentine’s Day.
Valentine’s Day has also changed quite a bit in Canada, too. One trend is to focus more on friendship and family rather than just romance. This year my mother sent my sisters and me a ‘’Happy Galentine’s Day!” short video message by phone. It was really cute, and so I sent the same message to some of my good friends in Canada. “Gal” means girl or woman in English, so it’s become trendy for girls to celebrate “Galentine’s Day” on February 13. My female friends are extremely important to me, so I’m happy to have this chance to let them know that I’m thinking of them.
Here at Eiwa, we marked Valentine’s Day with some English quizzes posted on the hallway board outside the English café. The students seemed to have a fun time answering the questions. Maybe next year I’ll add a question about ‘Galentine’s Day’! Happy chocolate-eating, everyone!
