FFF (8)- Pepero Day

Yesterday, Pepero Day, might be one of the best holidays ever invented.  It’s literally heaven for any sweet tooth, chocolate loving, energetic child and big eyed, foreign English teacher.  Pepero Day, celebrated on “11/11” (ship il/ship il), is quite similar to Valentine’s Day in the United States.  Like Valentine’s Day, couples exchange gifts, including chocolates. 

However, quite unlike the U.S., if you’re single, there’s no need to feel completely alienated.  So no moping around for all those single ladies.  In addition to couples exchanging treats, friends will trade with each other and even with their most favorite teachers, especially the sole foreigner J  

How thoughtful of the Koreans to be so inclusive!

빼빼로 (Pepero) a candy stick (basically cookie dipped in chocolate, aka heaven) is produced by the one and only Lotte, a company that basically dominates all realms of Korea.  On Pepero Day, these stick candies are exchanged due to their similar appearance to the number 1.

According to one source, Pepero Day originated in Busan, a city in south east Korea, in 1994, when a group of middle school females exchanged 빼빼로 sticks, wishing their friends to grow as tall and skinny as a빼빼로. 

But it is also thought that Lotte Confectionary started the tradition, as sales sky rocket on this day.  My theory is that there’s no holiday between Chuseok and Christmas (if they even practice Christianity), so someone decided to insinuate a little holiday in the middle.  The real answer, the world may never know.

Although, apparently 빼빼로 sticks aren’t the only things exchanged.  According to a source on Wikipedia, “some teachers have encouraged children to exchange healthy snacks to combat obesity.” 

All I have to say to this bull honky is that a) obesity flat out does not exist in Korea (take two glances at the 33% of Americans who waddle through our streets and then maybe they’ll stop complaining about obesity) and b) they don’t even celebrate Halloween, so let the poor children swap sweets for once!  Not to mention, this means 빼빼로 for me!

Needless to say, I got my fair share of Pepero yesterday.  In fact, I found yol boxes of 빼빼로 sitting on my desk throughout the day, all from some of my favorite students (yes I have favorites, but no, I won’t admit that to their faces!).  Some even wrote adorable notes, really making me feel loved:



Sorry that this one came out sideways.  It's normal before

uploading but then switches when you upload.

Anyway, it reads: "To Alex.  Hi teacher Alex.  Im Hoje.  I

give you Pepero Almond.  I hope you're not alergic to almond.

Actually I'm not good at english...  So I'm writing this letter

with my friend's help.  Bye!"



 

And for those of you that are wondering, Valentine’s Day is still observed here in Korea.  But of course, as always, there’s a slight variation- for Korean Valentine’s Day, only females give their boyfriends, fiancés, husbands, what-have-you chocolate. 

But don’t worry ladies; we’ve got our only special day.  On March 14 (ship sa) the men are allowed to release all of those suppressed feelings without their buddies heckling them.  Even giving gifts is permitted!  Of course I made sure that my afterschool children told Brandon about this day!