Happy Pepero Day to all!

Pepero Day is celebrated here in South Korea by giving people “Peperos”. They are long skinny cookies sticks dipped in chocolate. Very yummy! If you’re a teacher, you usually end up with tons of them.  Personally, I only eat Peperos on Pepero Day.  By the time the tenth student offers them to you, you get pretty sick of them.  Today, I actually got a hand dipped one. Not the bulk things that Lotte makes.  It was dipped in white chocolate and had sprinkles on it.

I have a pile of these things sitting on my desk.  I’ll probably throw some in the box I send home with Christmas gifts.  The rest I’ll give out as treats to the kids, in moderation of course.  The vast majority of my kids today were way high on sugar.  Ha, and I taught a unit to C1 on healthy eating as they were munching chocolate covered cookies.

The legend is that Pepero Day started in Busan. A bunch of girls started exchanging the snack and wishing each other that they would become as tall and thin as a Pepero. Nice legend. But more likely it was started by the folks at Lotte who make Peperos. It’s a true Korean “Hallmark” holiday.

Pepero Day is always celebrated on November 11th. Why that day? When you write the date at 11/11, it looks like four Peperos standing side by side.

See Wikipedia (who else?) for more information and links.