Pepero Day

Tomorrow, November 11, is Pepero Day. Pepero Day is a fake corporate holiday invented by the Lotte Corporation to sell their Pepero candy snack.

Pepero is basically a knock off of the better known Japanese snack Pocky — but don't tell Korean kids that. When my students gave me Pepero they asked if I had ever had it before. I made the unforgivable mistake of telling them no, but that it looked and tasted exactly like Japanese Pocky. They simply could not believe that Japan could have something as tasty as Pepero, and reacted with shock when I suggested that Pocky had been around long before Pepero. I don't for a minute want to minimize the Japanese atrocities committed against Korea, but sometimes the anti-Japanese animus I observe from my students is quite unsettling, especially since for the most part they are completely ignorant to the historical context that provokes it. Ironically enough, Lotte, one of Korea's biggest companies and the genius behind "Pepero Day," was actually founded in Japan by a Korean national that goes by the Japanese name Shigemitsu Takeo. Hmm, interesting.....

I highly recommend checking out the "Pepero Song" on the official website. You might have to wait a few moments for the animation to load, but it will be worth it to watch cartoon candy sticks singing and dancing, won't it? This short little cartoon provides more cultural insight to Korea that I can provide in this entire blog.