Pepero Pepero (Korean name: 빼빼로, English name: chocolate-covered pretzel stick) is a thin cookie stick with compound chocolate dipped in the outer layer. Pepero is manufactured by Lotte Confectionery Corporation in South Korea since 1983. Cocoa m ...

(빼빼로) 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 the ...

, and is an observance in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

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 one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, thr ...

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

snacks, a line of

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civ ...

-dipped cookie 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.

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 A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school. ...

students in the

Yeongnam Yeongnam (Hangul: 영남, ; literally "south of the passes") is a region that coincides with the former Gyeongsang Province in what is now South Korea. The region includes the modern-day provinces of North and South Gyeongsang and the self-go ...

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, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

s including

Hyundai Department Store Hyundai Department Store ( Korean: 현대백화점 주식회사, Hanja: 現代百貨店株式會社), together with Lotte Department Store and Shinsegae, is one of the three major department store chains in South Korea. Its parent company is th ...

Shinsegae Shinsegae (, ) is a South Korean department store 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 one of the big three de ...

, 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 Lotte ...

were benefiting for people celebrating the day while stores such as

E-mart e-mart () is the largest retailer in South Korea. There were 160 stores across the country as of December 2016. It was founded on 12 November 1993 by Shinsegae as the first discount retailer in South Korea. E-Mart is the oldest and largest dis ...

and

Homeplus Homeplus () is a Korean discount store retail chain running about 140 branches with 25,000 employees throughout South Korea. Homeplus is the second largest retailer in South Korea, behind Shinsegae Group's e-mart chain. Homeplus operates its ...

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 agriculturers. In India it is observed on December 23''.'' List by country Ghana The National Farmers' Day in Ghana is an annual c ...

, 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'' ( ko, 떡) is a class of Korean rice cakes made with steamed flour made of various grains, including glutinous or non-glutinous rice. Steamed flour can also be pounded, shaped, or pan-fried to make ''tteok''. In some cases, ''tteok' ...

, 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 and are particularly preval ...

, 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