Pepero Day

In Japan they call it "Pocky," and in Korea they call it "Pepero." Basically, it's just a sweet-wafer stick covered in chocolate. According to my roommate, this particular candy is available back home in the States, although I can't verify that (however, she is from the West Coast, and I don't like candy, so I'll take her word for it). What makes this snack significant is the unofficial holiday that surrounds it, which occurred this past Saturday. In the "Western World" November 11th marks Armistice Day/Veterans Day, the day the "war to end all wars" officially ended at the 11th hour (if only that sentiment had rung true for the remainder of the bloodiest century in the history of humanity). However, for children and young lovers in "Far East" Asia, November 11th marks the day when people exchange Pepero/Pocky in the spirit of friendship and love. According to some, Pepero Day was first celebrated at a girl's school in Busan in 1994 and has since become a nationwide event. Whether one believes the foundational myth or not, one thing is certain: Lotte, the corporation which makes the official Pepero snack and backs other economic ventures on the peninsula that are too numerous to cite here, has made a killing off of the similarity between its snack food and the "11/11 sticks" of November 11th.

Jessica and I both decided that it would be wise to join in the fun last Friday and thus we invested heavily in Lotte's product and distributed the sweet sticks to our students. We were also recipients of Pepero love; most of the students who gave me gifts were the ones I expected would do so, but there were a few surprises as well. My students don't really need an excuse to consume candy (they always have some sort of sweet during class time, and I've never seen more cavities and fillings in children so young before), but I didn't feel so guilty about supplying their sugar addiction on this occasion. It felt nice to be included in their fun.

Another date-related candy-holiday that I neglected to mention earlier (because my students neglected to celebrate it properly) is "Thin-Thin Day," which falls on October 10th. The "th" sound is absent from the Korean language, and thus "Thin-Thin" becomes "Tin-Tin," which sounds enough like "Ten-Ten" aka "10/10" for the association to be drawn.














I know the picture is fairly low quality, but the caption on the box reads "Slim style chocolate for girls: The smile will make happy and joyful time." In my humble opinion, Pepero taste much better than Thin-Thins. Here's hoping the candy companies haven't figured out how to exploit December 12th yet.