Each November 11 here in Korea is similar to Valentine's Day. Much like in the West, this day is centered around, you guessed it, chocolate. However, unlike the West, Koreans didn't care to hide behind the name of some saint - so they called it like they saw it - and Pepero Day day was born.
Pepero is a cookie stick, often like a thinly rolled waffle, dipped in chocolate. They come in as many as ten different flavors ranging from original and peanut to lemon and cheese. The significance around the holiday is that a handful Peperos look like the number 11. So 11/11 screams holiday celebration! We are anticipating that next year, 11/11/11, is going to be madness.
Our day at school on the eleventh was filled with little ones hopped up on, sugar giving out dozens of Peperos to each other, but mostly to us teachers. Since Nick and I are new and have yet to meet all the students, our loot pile was not nearly as large as the other teachers but we still made out quite handsomely. The kids were so cute when they gave them to us - Koreans will hand things to one another with two hands as a sign of respect and bow their heads slightly - and being that we are new and sort of strange to them, they would giggle uncontrollably and quickly walk away.
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| Our Pepero pile. |
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