Pepero Day

Happy Pepero Day everyone. :P

Pepero Day
Pepero Day is a unofficial holiday in South Korea similar to Valentine's Day or Sweetest Day. It is named after the Korean snack Pepero and held on November 11, since the date "11/11" resemble four sticks of Pepero. The holiday is observed mostly by young people and couples, who exchange Pepero sticks, other candies, and romantic gifts.
According to the story, Pepero Day was started in 1994 by students at a girls' middle school in Busan, where they exchanged Pepero sticks as gifts to wish one another to grow "as tall and slender as a Pepero" (Pepero means "thin like a stick"). However, it is more likely it was initiated by Lotte, the company which produces Pepero.
While in most countries of the world, November 11th is a day of remembrance (since it signaled the end of World War I), in Korea it is a day of romance, gaudy cardboard packaging emblazoned with butchered English love lines, and massive fortunes earned by convenience stores and Wonka-esque entrepreneurs. Many students are truant on this day to celebrate with their friends.
In Japan, a similar Pocky Day was held on November 11 in 1999, which was the 11th year of the Heisei era. The date, 11/11 of the 11th year, resembled 6 sticks of Pocky. According to Korean sources this day was based on the Pepero Day.

The History of Pepero:

(1983-chocolate pepero; 1984-almond pepero; 1994-strawberry pepero, flake pepero; 1995-cheese pepero, coffee pepero; 1996-peanut pepero, hazelnut pepero, bulgogi pepero [doesn't sound so good to me... bulgogi is meat!!]; 1997-peanut butter pepero; 2000-nude pepero [basically inside out with the chocolate on the inside]; 2005-black pepero)
Coming up to Pepero Day, every stor is filled with pepero gift sets. The gift sets sometimes have things like key chains, stuffed toy peperos, pepero cell phone trinkets, pepero pencil cases, etc. There are actually 5 pepero 'characters': Chopero, Apero (almond?), Ddangpero (peanut?), Nupero (nude?), Sopero.
Of course, there are also imitation peperos everywhere. They are definitely not as good as the originals. They usually taste a bit stale to me.
Pepero Love (click on the 1). I would embed it, but then you would be stuck with that annoying music EVERY TIME you opened my blog, as it is automatic and cannot be shut off.
Every month here has some sort of 'Day'.