Pepero Day

Happy Pepero Day!

November 11th is a holiday dedicated to capitalism. Okay, so not officially, but if ever there was a holiday that exemplified capitalism, it is this one. Pepero Day is a holiday dedicated to a certain cookie in Korea. They’re long sticks dipped in chocolate (and quite delicious). Today, rather than remember veterans and war, Koreans give each other Pepero cookies.

According to “authorities” (i.e. Wikipedia), the holiday started because some girls in Busan gave each other Pepero cookies to encourage each other to be tall and slim like the cookies. If that’s not the slimmest excuse for a brand-based holiday, I’d like to hear the other. Seriously, couldn’t the company come up with something a little better? I guess it doesn’t matter, because Pepero Day is celebrated pretty heavily in Korea. Apparently it’s on November 11th (11/11) because the date resembles four Pepero cookies.

I could go on a tangent about how this is even worse than Valentine’s Day, but I’m kind of impressed. So today, rather than think of it as a holiday where I express my affection for others through a sweet snack, I’m going to consider it a salute to capitalism. Not only did Pepero create a holiday to boost sales, but they managed to make it so that they were the only company to benefit (take that Hallmark!). I read that over fifty percent of Pepero’s sales come from this holiday.

As another side note, I’d like to mention that Korea celebrates couples on the fourteenth of every month. So those men out there who hate Valentine’s Day should be grateful that it’s once a year. Korean men have to do it 12 times a year. Though in Korea, Valentine’s Day is the holiday where the women give their boyfriends chocolate. Men give gifts to their girlfriends on White Day (a month later).