Pepero Day (11 November)

I love Koreans!  They’re all about building relationships and showing your love and appreciation for people with cutesy things.  It’s all about the love!  This is seen by the fact that they have about a dozen versions of Valentine’s Day – each with it’s own etiquette and gift policy, it seems.  Today is one such day: Pepero Day!

 

 

Unlike the other versions of Valentine’s Day that are usually held on the 14^th of each month, Pepero Day is always held on the 11^th day of the 11^th month and it’s a celebration ‘holiday’ that was created by the company that makes Pepero candy which is an ingenious marketing idea!  Pepero is similar to Pocky (I think) in Japan and is long, thin biscuits dipped in chocolate.  The aim is to get four of these (11/11) which show the date of Pepero Day.  NZ2 warned me about it yesterday so I went to Lotte mart to buy some supplies to hand out at school. 

I’ve read that Pepero Day is also a good day to give candy to secret crushes without having to feel like an idiot.  I already feel like an idiot most of the time but today, I feel particularly ridiculous walking into my teacher’s room with a bag of candy.  I can’t quite get over my awkwardness of handing out kiddie candy to my colleagues – and no one else seems to be doing it – so I resort to handing it out to all of my classes.  Bear in mind, I’ve actually bought enough candy to give to every teacher in my school and I’ve only used about a tenth of this on my classes – the rest is sitting in my desk drawer. 

In each class, I hand out candy which is always popular with the kids here – trust me, they need the sugar rush! – and I’ve been offered Pepero sticks by a couple of students.  I don’t see any teachers handing out Pepero but, somehow, I find several boxes of Pepero that have mysteriously appeared on my desk while I’ve been in class.  Where and who it came from, I have no idea but I do know that I probably have enough Pepero to keep me going until next November!