Pepero Day is held annually on

November 11 Events Pre-1600 * 308 – At Carnuntum, Emperor ''emeritus'' Diocletian confers with Galerius, '' Augustus'' of the East, and Maximianus, the recently returned former ''Augustus'' of the West, in an attempt to end the civil wars of th ...

, and is an observance in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

similar to

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring a Christian martyrs, martyr named Saint Valentine, Valentine, and ...

. It is the biggest annual day-marketing event in South Korea, and involves the gifting or exchange of Pepero snacks, a line of

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavoring, flavor other foods. Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocesse ...

-dipped

cookie A cookie is a sweet biscuit with high sugar and fat content. Cookie dough is softer than that used for other types of biscuit, and they are cooked longer at lower temperatures. The dough typically contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of ...

sticks, with the intention of displaying affection for friends and loved ones. It is held on this day due to the resemblance of Pepero sticks to the shortened date of 11/11. There's a similar Pocky & Pretz Day in Japan. Surprisingly, Pepero Day started in Korea before Pocky Day in Japan. Pepero Day has gained huge advertising effects and commercial results by using this observance. The Japanese company belatedly copied it and made Pocky & Pretz Day, and it was promoted through it.

History

The exact origins of this day are unknown. The origins are usually traced to a news story set in 1983. In the story, two female

middle school Middle school, also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school, is an educational stage between primary school and secondary school. Afghanistan In Afghanistan, middle school includes g ...

students in the

Yeongnam Yeongnam (, ; literally "south of the ridge") is a region that coincides with the former Gyeongsang Province, one of the ancient Eight Provinces, in what is now South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a countr ...

region exchanged Pepero wishing that they would both become tall and thin. However, there is some doubt about this story. Some argue that the origin was due to the shape of 1's in the date (November 11 – 11/11) resembling Pepero sticks, while some others attribute the similarity of shapes as factors that attributed to the popularity but not its origin. The fad spread with the idea that, for maximum effectiveness for height and thinness, one must eat 11 packets of Pepero on November 11, 11:11am and 11:11pm at 11 seconds exactly. From 1997, Lotte started to use the aforementioned school story to successfully promote Pepero Day. The trend led to other companies creating similarly shaped snacks to participate on Pepero Day. , Lotte was making 50% of its annual sales on Pepero Day. , several

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...

s including

Hyundai Department Store Hyundai Department Store () is a major department store chain in South Korea. Its parent company is the Hyundai Department Store Group. It, Lotte Department Store, and Shinsegae are the three largest chains in the country. Stores Seoul Metrop ...

Shinsegae Shinsegae Inc. (, ) is a South Korean department store Franchising, franchise, along with several other businesses, headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. The firm is an affiliate of Shinsegae Group, South Korea's leading retail ''chaebol'', and ...

, and

Lotte Department Store Lotte Department Store () is a Korean retail company established in 1979, and headquartered in Sogong-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea. Lotte Department Store offers retail consumer goods and services and is one out of 8 business units of Lot ...

were benefiting for people celebrating the day while stores such as

E-mart Emart Inc. () is the largest retailer in South Korea. The retailer was founded on 12 November 1993, by Shinsegae, as the first discount retailer in South Korea. There were 160 stores across the Country as of December 2016. Emart is South Korea' ...

and Homeplus were specially displaying and selling peperos on the day.

Controversy

Pepero Day has been criticized as a business tool and marketing strategy of certain companies, as well as for promoting unhealthy, fattening food that contradicts its original meaning (about becoming tall and thin). In addition, some say the day is an insult to hardworking farmers as

Farmers' Day Farmers' Day is an annual observance in various countries to celebrate the national contributions of farmers and agricultures. It is observed on different dates around the world. List by country Afghanistan In Afghanistan, it is observed on M ...

, enacted in Korea in 1996 to promote farming, also falls on November 11. Thus the alternative "Garaetteok Day" has been proposed to promote the exchange of garaetteok (sticks of white

tteok ''Tteok'' () is a general term for Korean rice cakes. They are made with steamed flour of various grains, especially glutinous rice, glutinous and non-glutinous Japonica rice, rice. Steamed flour can also be pounded, shaped, or pan-fried to make ...

, a type of Korean

rice cake A rice cake may be any kind of food item made from rice that has been shaped, condensed, or otherwise combined into a single object. A wide variety of rice cakes exist in many different cultures in which rice is eaten. Common variations include ...

, which unlike pepero are commonly made and sold by smaller businesses).

References

{{reflist South Korean popular culture November observances Observances about food and drink Giving Days celebrating love

History

Controversy

See also

References