12 Things You Should Know About Pepero Day

Oh Pepero Day (빼빼로 데이), the Korean holiday that you might love or love to hate. I guess it depends on whether you like the Korean snack, Pepero, though. If chocolate covered cylindrical cookies are your jam, then this is a holiday for you!

Do you know how many romantic holidays there are in Korea? More than 12. Learn about the other romantic holidays in Korea here. Come November, snack shelves in Korean convenience stores, grocery stores, and every other store, feature a substantial number of this popular Korean snack item.

Want to know more about this romantic holiday in Korea? You’ve come to the right place. Here are 12 things you should know about Pepero Day in Korea.

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1 Pepero Day is held on November 11th each year in Korea and while it is a holiday, it’s not a national holiday you get off of work for. Wondering why November 11th? It’s because Pepero resemble a “1” and November 11th is 11/11. It’ll be easy to remember, won’t it?

2 Pepero Day started because… well no one knows. If you’re wondering how Pepero Day got started, you’re not the only one and it’s still a bit of a mystery. One story says that it originated in 1983 when two female middle school students exchanged Pepero wishing that they would become tall and thin… like the Pepero.

Some people say it was just a marketing scheme and since the Pepero sticks resemble a “1”, it was easy to promote it on November 11th. And yet others say that it was started between male students in the 90s that were, ironically, proud to be single. I say ironically because now it’s considered a bit of a romantic holiday.

3 Pepero Day, or a version of it, isn’t only celebrated in Korea. In Japan, November 11th is known as Pocky Day and in China, it’s known as Singles Day. And the celebration has been picking up steam in other countries the past few years too.

4 There are a lot more Pepero varieties than you might realize. The original is the chocolate dipped, but there are also strawberry, almond, green tea, white chocolate cookie, black chocolate cookie, tiramisu, cheese, melon, peanut, black chocolate, blueberry yogurt, cherry doubled dipped, mint chocolate, yakult yoghurt, strawberry double dipped, cheddar cheese, dark chocolate, peanut butter, latte, peanuts and pretzel and even dalgona. There’s at least this many but probably more. I recently tried some Jeju tangerine Pepero that were great and it was my first time seeing them.

The only hang up is that most of them aren’t yet available abroad though you can get your hands on some of the most popular Pepero varities online at sites like Amazon. And if you’re a Korean snack, fun, check out getting your hands on a Seoulbox. That’s where I got my Jeju Tangering Pepero recently. Or, Daebak also has a great Korean snack box that I got to try the Crunky Granola Pepero pictured above in.

5 Pepero are made by one of Korea’s biggest conglomerates, Lotte Corporation. If you’ve visited Korea, you’ve probably seen ‘Lotte’ all over the place. From amusement parks to hotels, and food, they’ve pretty much got their hands dipped in every industry that they can make money from. This is one reason why Pepero Day is generally considered a “Hallmark Holiday” of sorts, or a big marketing scheme.

6 According to Lotte, to become tall and thin, you need to eat 11 packets of Pepero at exactly 11 seconds past 11:11am and 11:11pm on November 11th. Makes all the sense, doesn’t it?

7 There’s a bit of a controversy or maybe feud, between the company that created Pocky in Japan and Lotte, the creator of Pepero, here in Korea. Glico, a company in Japan, first launched Pocky in 1966 and they have quite the uncanny resemblance to Pepero. Well, I guess that’s the other way around since Lotte ‘created’ Pepero in 1983.

Pocky aren’t sold in Korea though and so Lotte argued that there is no copyright infringement on Glico’s Pocky and they won. But the celebration, Pepero Day, actually came before Pocky Day so maybe the companies are getting ideas from each other at this point.

8 Wonder who gets Pepero in Korea? While it is sometimes touted as a holiday for singles because the Pepero can look like a ‘1’ remember, friends, family, students and teachers give Pepero to each other so jump in and be apart of the fun or just buy some for yourself. That’s always fun too.

9 Pepero Day is reportedly the most profitable day of the year for convenience stores in Korea.

10 Pepero Day falls on the same day as Farmers’ Day in Korea which promotes pride in farming. Though Farmers’ Day was enacted in 1996, proponents of the day think Pepero Day should be changed to Garaetteok Day. Instead of exchanging Pepero, people would exchange the long white sticks of tteok, or rice cakes, which tend to be sold by small businesses and not huge conglomerates. You can guess how many people are for the change I imagine.

11 Overseas, Pepero sales grew more than 14% last year to $33.9 billion. Lotte has increased marketing for Pepero abroad under the slogan ‘Let’s get closer together’ with a major focus on countries like Singapore, Russia, and Kazakhstan. Suffice to say, you  might be seeing it in your country soon!

12 Come holiday time, Pepero might come in boxes, but those boxes may be shaped into all manner of things like hearts and bouquets too. And, some of those bouquets may have some money inside. Money Pepero, donppaeppaero (돈 빼빼로), is a popular gift inspired by Pepero but with rolled up paper bills that are put inside of rectangular boxes similar to Pepero. Honestly, which would you prefer? A box of money, or a box of chocolate cookies? I think I know what you’ll say.

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When it’s time to celebrate Pepero Day, get ready for the fun and greet people by saying “Happy Pepero Day” 빼빼로데이 축하해요! (ppaeppaerodei chukahaeyo!).

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