PEPERO DAY

Pepero Day is an observance in South Korea similar to Valentine's Day. It is named after the Korean snack Pepero and held on November 11, since the date "11/11" resembles four sticks of Pepero. The holiday is observed mostly by young people and couples, who exchange Pepero sticks, other candies, and romantic gifts. Lotte denies starting the holiday and instead states that they noticed a bump in Pepero sales around November 11th and after continued popularity they decided to then encourage the holiday with special gift boxes and other promotions. Some consider it to be a contrived holiday and some teachers have encouraged children to exchange healthy snacks to help combat obesity.
According to one story, Pepero Day was started in 1994 by students at a girls' middle school in Busan, where they exchanged Pepero sticks as gifts to wish one another to grow "as tall and slender as a Pepero".
In Japan, a similar Pocky Day was started however it has failed to gain traction.

Pepero (빼빼로) is a cookie stick, dipped in chocolate syrup, manufactured by Lotte in South Korea since 1983. It is similar to, and inspired by, the Japanese chocolate-covered snack food, Pocky. Lotte usually does about 55% of their Pepero business in November every year. In early October 2008 melamine was found in some Pepero.
As of 2007, it was sold in 10 different flavors:
- Regular
- Strawberry-flavored
- Almond Chocolate
- Nude (chocolate in the center)
- Nude Lemon Cheese
- Cocoa
- Soft
- Cheese
- "Woman in White" and "Man in Black" are slightly more "classy" brands of Pepero, and both have chocolate cookie bits scattered throughout the chocolate dip.
- Topic, a style similar to Japanese Toppo, also manufactured by Lotte.