What does "tutu" mean in Korea?

The 22nd day of dating. The word comes from English 'two-two,' and it spread widely among middle and high school couples in the late 1990s and early 2000s. These days adult couples rarely keep it, and it survives mostly as a marker that reveals a person's generation.

Do Korean couples count from day 0 or day 1?

The day you confess is Day 1. So the 100th day falls 99 days after the start date, not 100. Every Korean couple app and D-day calculator works this way, which is why people who count by hand are almost always one day off.

Why is the 100th day such a big deal?

In Korea, one hundred (baek) is a number of wholeness and blessing. The baek-il janchi — celebrating a baby surviving its first 100 days — is an old tradition, and a couple's 100th day inherits that feeling. It marks the moment you have cleared the fragile opening stretch of a relationship.

Do I have to celebrate every monthly 14th-day anniversary?

No. There are twelve, one for each month, but only Valentine's Day (Feb 14) and White Day (Mar 14) are widely kept, followed by Rose Day (May 14) and Silver Day (Jul 14). The rest are known to some and skipped by nearly everyone.

What should I prepare if I am dating a Korean?

Remembering the dates matters more than the gifts. Installing a couple app together and registering your start date is the de facto standard. For the 100th day and the first anniversary, a reserved restaurant and one photo are enough. Lately gifts have been shifting from things toward experiences like a hotel night or an exhibition.

Tutu, 100 Days, 1,000 Days: Why Korean Couples Count the Days They've Been Together

In Korea, the first thing two people do after deciding to date is nail down a date. “So, when did we start?” — until that question has an answer, nothing else moves. That day becomes Day 1, and a small widget appears on both phones counting upward from it. Where a Western couple might not celebrate anything until the one-year mark, a Korean couple passes four, five, six anniversaries inside that first year alone.

The short answer

Korean couples count from the confession day as Day 1, and mark 22 days (tutu) · 100 days · 200 · 300 · 500 · 1,000, plus every yearly anniversary.
The 100th day carries the most weight. Like a baby's 100-day celebration, it is the Korean number-sense that "we made it through the fragile start."
Tutu (22 days) is basically a relic of late-1990s and early-2000s teen culture. Most 20- and 30-something couples skip it now.
On top of all this sit twelve "Days" on the 14th of every month. Nobody keeps all of them — only three or four are actually alive.
If you are dating a Korean: remembering the date matters far more than the gift. Installing a couple app together is the de facto standard.

Which days do Korean couples actually count?

The short version: 22 days, 100 days, then the hundreds, then each year’s anniversary. Everything in between depends on the couple.

📅 The days Korean couples count — and how seriously each one is kept

Day	What it is called	How many actually keep it	What people usually do
22 days	Tutu (two-two)	Teens sometimes, adults almost never	Something light — a cake, a letter
50 days	Fifty days	A minority	A meal out
100 days	Baek-il	Nearly every couple	A reserved restaurant, a gift, photos
200 days	Two hundred days	About half	A simple date
300 days	Three hundred days	A minority	A meal
500 days	Five hundred days	Fairly common	A preview of the first anniversary
365 days	First anniversary	Nearly every couple	A trip, a hotel, a photo shoot
1,000 days	A thousand days	A big one for long-term couples	A trip, a ring, sometimes a proposal

Day 1,000 works out to about two years and nine months. By the time a couple reaches it, marriage talk has usually already started — so a surprising number of people actually schedule their proposal for Day 1,000.

The off-by-one-day trap

Korean counting starts with the confession day as Day 1. So the 100th day is the start date plus 99 days — not plus 100. Counting by hand almost always lands you a day off, so it is safer to plug the start date into a couple app or D-day calculator. Showing up a day late for the 100th day stings far more than you would expect.

Why does the 100th day weigh so much?

In Korean culture, the number 100 is not just a big number. Baek (백, 100) is a number of blessing — “complete,” “whole,” “all.”

Baek-il janchi — where this all comes from

Before modern medicine reached Korea, a baby surviving its first 100 days was never a given. So on the 100th day families set the baek-il sang (100-day table) and handed out baek-il tteok to the neighbors — "we cleared the danger; now live long and stay healthy." In the morning they set a bowl of miyeokguk (seaweed soup) and white rice on the samsin table, praying for the baby's health and long life.

A couple's 100th day inherits exactly that feeling. It is a marker that you have cleared the fragile opening stretch — which is why 100 days utterly outweighs 200.

And the timing is emotionally real. The giddy high of a new relationship tends to settle right around the three-month mark. The 100th day is, in effect, a ritual for telling each other: “okay, we are real now.”

Is "tutu" still alive? A word that splits generations

Tutu means the 22nd day of dating — a coinage that simply doubles the English word “two.” Newspaper articles were already describing it as a teen anniversary custom back in 2001, so it spread widely in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

  Where it stands now: Tutu was mostly a middle and high school couple's custom. Adult couples have bigger dates — 100 days, anniversaries — so there is no reason to count 22. Even among teens today it is less universal than it once was. Ask a Korean "did you celebrate tutu?" and their answer will reveal their age faster than whatever they actually say.

Put another way, tutu is less a living custom than a shared memory of the generation that passed through that era. When the word turns up in a Korean drama or variety show, it is almost always a scene set in the 2000s.

Wait — there is an anniversary on the 14th of every month?

There is. From January through December, twelve “Days” sit on the 14th of each month. A good chunk of them have murky origins and were essentially invented for retail, so most Koreans do not even know all of them.

💐 The twelve "14th" days — the bold ones are the ones still actually celebrated

Date	Name	What it is	How widely kept
1/14	Diary Day	Give a new-year diary	Low
2/14	Valentine’s Day	Women give men chocolate	Very high
3/14	White Day	Men give women candy	Very high
4/14	Black Day	People who got nothing in Feb and Mar eat jjajangmyeon together	Medium (half joke)
5/14	Rose Day	Couples exchange roses	Medium–high
6/14	Kiss Day	Couples kiss	Low
7/14	Silver Day (Ring Day)	Exchange silver rings and promise a future	Medium
8/14	Green Day	A date in the woods or nature	Low
9/14	Photo Day	Take photos together	Low
10/14	Wine Day	A wine date	Low
11/14	Movie Day	A movie date	Low
12/14	Hug Day	A day for hugging	Low

The hidden design — May 14 and July 14 are connected

Confess with a rose on Rose Day (May 14) and start dating, and your 100th day lands around late August. Meanwhile Silver Day (July 14) has settled in as "the day you exchange rings and promise a future," which dovetails neatly with spring couples buying matching couple rings in summer. Too tidy to be coincidence — it is a well-built commercial calendar.

And then there is Pepero Day on November 11 — separate from the 14th series, but far more present among young people than Rose Day has ever been.

What today's couples actually do

The forms survive, but the content keeps shifting. Here is what 20- and 30-something couples actually do now.

1. Apps keep the calendar. Couple-only apps like Between and SumOne wrap chat, photo albums, a shared diary, and a D-day counter into a private space only the two of you can see. Register the start date and the app reminds you whether it is day 22 or day 1,000. Plenty of people even pin the day count to their home screen as a widget.

2. Couple rings still run strong. But it is silver rings and silver accessories — not luxury brands — that dominate the stretch from 100 days to the first anniversary. Silver Day on July 14 catches exactly this demand.

3. From things to experiences. The center of gravity for anniversary gifts has moved from objects toward a hotel night, an exhibition or a show, a short trip. The shift is clearest from the first anniversary onward.

4. Photos become the gift. Gifts that turn “us” into a physical record — a couple snap shoot, a photobook, a desk calendar with your faces in it — have stayed near the top of 100-day gifts for years.

5. Couple looks have faded. The 2000s habit of matching head to toe has come to feel a little tacky, and today’s couples prefer matching quietly — sneakers, a bag charm, a phone case.

What to know if you are a foreigner dating a Korean

Five practical moves

Nail down the start date. "So when should we say we started?" is a real conversation in Korean dating. Leave it vague and you cannot calculate the 100th day later.
Install a couple app together. It may feel odd at first, but in Korea it is less a romantic gesture than shared scheduling.
Never miss the 100th day and the first anniversary. The rest, follow your partner's lead.
Effort is graded above price. A reserved restaurant, a handwritten letter, one good photo — these often land better than an expensive gift.
Do not panic at a day you have never heard of. Plenty of Koreans do not keep all twelve days either. "Wait, that is a thing?" is a common reaction among Koreans themselves.

You do not have to read this culture as a burden. At its core, the habit of counting days is a device for keeping the relationship visible. The day count lighting up your home screen each morning, the check-in every 100 days that “we are still going strong” — strip away the anniversary-industry marketing and that is what remains. Sit in a Seoul café and you may overhear, from the next table, “wait, what day are we on?” That is this culture, alive in the wild.

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