Happy Pepero Day!

Have you checked your calendar today?  It's November 11th, a day of confectionery celebration in Korea:  Pepero Day.  Why Pepero Day?  Well, the popular cookie stick resembles a "1," and November 11th just happens to have four "1's."  Now, there are a few different stories about how Pepero Day was started, but I suspect it's much like how holidays are commercialized at home--by the big box stores and industries.

On Pepero Day, children and young adults like to exchange these cookie treats in a flurry of red, green, and yellow boxes.  Sometimes if you're really lucky, you can get the super-sized Pepero or a homemade one.  I think an even more interesting part of the holiday happens after the initial exchange:  trading.  Think of it like post-Halloween candy exchanging.  

"I'll trade you four of the red box peperos for a green box pepero."

"Give me a yellow box pepero and we'll call it even."

"Deal."

What does this all mean?  Peperos come in a nice little variety of flavors to suit your tastes.  I did an informal poll of my students the other day and found that their favorite is the yellow box kind (which is a plain outside and chocolate-filled).

~Regular or Chocolate

~Strawberry
~Almond Chocolate
~Nude (Chocolate-filled)
~Nude Lemon Cheese
~Cocoa
~Soft
~Cheese
~Woman in White/Man in Black (more pricey versions with cookie bits in the chocolate dip covering)
~Topic (similar to Japanese Toppo)

And at the store the other day I noticed now they have Peanut Chocolate flavor.  I haven't seen some of the stranger ones (namely the cheese ones), but I have seen some pretty ornate arrangements of Peperos for purchase.  Pepero bouquet, anyone?

If you're not into the manufactured kind, there are also kits you can buy to make them yourself.  This way you can add your own personal touch to your pepero before giving them to your friends.

Interesting though--the day after Halloween in the States, all the Christmas decorations and paraphernalia come out in stores.  The day after Halloween in Korea?  Out come the stacks and stacks of pepero.  I was grocery shopping last Monday, the first of the month, and witnessed this quick changeover, much like it would happen at Wal-Mart at home.  Just can't get away from it no matter where I go!