Today it’s November 11th (11/11). In South Korea this means it’s Pepero Day. Pepero (빼빼로) is a very popular Korean snack. It’s like a thin stick covered with chocolate, very similar to “Mikado” in Spain. The difference is that we don’t have a “Mikado Day”, and many people in Spain don’t even know what Mikado is.
Because the date November 11th has four “ones” (like four sticks) Pepero has made of this day in South Korea a day as important as Valetine’s Day in other countries. In Pepero Day, couples (also friends, but specially teenager couples) give each other Pepero as a sign of love or friendship.
Peppero Day is relatively recent (about 13 years according to the wikipedia), but it’s on its way to becoming part of Korean culture (perhaps it already is). Quite a marketing lesson from Pepero (which by the way, is part of Lotte, a Korean chaebol to which I also want to dedicate a post).
And to finish this post, here’s a Pepero commercial: