Most of the world today observed a day to mark the end of the great war whereas Korea observed the day of sweetness and love,  in the form of Pepero Day.

Two days back, I had been to a store to buy daily needs along with a Korean friend. As soon as we entered he got excited and said, “Wow, it already started, so many peperos!” I asked what was that. And I came to know about a strange day, which actually is today “Pepero Day”. This day is marked in Korea along with Japan on November 11.

November 11 is a unique day in year, when all the numbers are 1, 11-11. Peperos are unique condiments with wafers wrapped with different flavored chocolates and essentially having elongated shape like 1. So, exchanging or gifting this long shaped wafers is Pepero Day. Some people even say this day has become a kind of Korean Valentine Day. I don’t know how many of you get surprised to hear this, but I was, when I came to know that it was initially promoted by a confectionary and then young people quickly and firmly picked it up. I wanted to know how it was started, is it realted to any kind of tradition. And it was also strange that this festival is observed in Japan and Korea, while they have always have a bitter relationships in the past.

I asked my friends, how Pepero Day started? None has a solid answer, but all had one common thing-  it was  started by a company. So I thought, probably on this day, these chocolates must be damn cheaper. However, that was not the case. So why youths just followed this day? Moreover, this chocolate is not a traditional condiment of Korea, and it appears that it is a copy-cat product from a Japanese company. So, I browsed and found some postings on this.

Peperro is a brand name for the long slender chocolate coated wafers produced by Lotte confectionary in South Korea. My friends here say Pepero itself is a copied form of Japanse brand Pocky. All of my friends whom I asked about this day, doesnot have clear idea how this started,as I mentioned above, however a posting in Wikipedia shows that it might have started in 1994 when girl students of a middle school in Busan, Korea, exchanged the tall, slender Pepero sticks wishing each other to be taller as slimmer as Pepero, and quickly it spread. It seems it is hugely popular among the teens and young students. Even Korean government has tapped this day for increasing awareness against the junk food. One newspaper, on its online edition has posted a picture of school kids preparing traditional rice cake (TUCK) prepared by themselves to gift the teachers and colleagues. Leave the school teens, even in my department, undergraduate students had come with mighty Peperos in their hands. My labmate has her desk decorated with thePeperos by her friends.

Pepero History

Pepero History

This picture is taken from Lotte’s website showing history of Pepero.
The Korean characters next to the years shows the flavors and description of Pepero they started that year.

(http://www.pepero.co.kr/pepero/is/pepero.jsp)


Strange celebrations are not new here. Once I came to Korea two and half years back, one thing I have noted- there are many established days of celebration among younger students in a year. These days of celebrations are generally high at the beginning of the semesters as an ice breaker among newcomers and between the seniors and juniors. Similarly, there are days in which the 20-yrs crossed students get roses from the seniors, there is a day in which all has to drink alcohol from same large pitcher, black day, white day and so on. I browsed internet if there is any things about these holidays, and there was Wikipedia mentioning many days of such happenings among Korean youths. I came to interesting record that each month from January to December, there is at least a day to celebrate for youths. So my observation of happenings here are a part of youth culture.

Happy Pepero Day!!!