Korea has some crazy things at times and Pepero day is one of them. Held on the 11th of the 11th (11/11), people buy and share yummy chocolate sticks with friends and loved ones. The real origin of this holiday is a bit unknown, but one of the believes are that 2 girls exchanged peperos with each other and wished that they would become tall and thin. Of course this wish is completely full of irony, because the sticks are full of chocolaty calories. 

Big companies like Lotte, started to promote and sell more and more peporos every year. Like valentines day, pepero day has become a huge thing and everyone is in on it. The stores sell the gift baskets and bags filled with peperos. Over the top kind of pepero sticks are also being sold. 

One of my students was lucky enough to go on a trip to Japan recently and he brought back the Japanese version of this snack. PRETZ, like you can see below, comes in wacky flavors like, "salad dressing" and Almond flavor. (There are more, but I only got these 2.) 

The salad dressing flavor had a salty, vinegary taste, which was a fantastic change to the sweet chocolate on peperos. The almond flavor, was a bit sweeter, but still nice and nutty. 

What do I think about this day? Well I think it's an entire day, dedicated to making companies rich and people fat. Nonetheless, it's fun to get some snacks from your students. What makes this more crazy is how it's starting to be overdone. The peperos are getting bigger and the kids give more and more to each other. It's getting to a point where a kid will easily leave with more than 20 boxes of peperos.  Much like Haloween in America, I think a few kids would have a sugar rush for a few days.

Hope you enjoyed reading about this funny day in Korea. Please give me a shout out and let me know what you think about Korea or about my blog, or even ask me some questions. 

Until next time.