Yesterday I wrote a post about the significance of November 11th. Remembrance day is a special day celebrated by those countries in the commonwealth. Outside of the commonwealth, November 11th has a different meaning. In South Korea November 11th is Pepero Day.
What is Pepero Day
Pepero Day is similar to that of Valentines day is Western culture. Peperos are thin bread sticks usually covered in chocolate. There are several different stories as to the origin of Pepero day, but what seems most logical to me is that Peperos being long skinny bread sticks, resemble Novemeber 11th when written out numerically, 11/11. On Pepero day people give their friends or loved ones boxes of Peperos as a sign of affection. In recent years it has become more and more of a consumer holiday, with big companies such as Lotte just looking to play on consumerism and make a few dollars.
Giving in to Consumerism
Well, Kind of. For a special activity in class I thought it would be fun to make our own Peperos. This way we are not necessarily supporting the giant companies but buying the ingredients and making are own. Who knows, maybe these companies own the whole top to bottom process. Anyways, I purchased all the ingredients online for around $20 USD and we were able to make about 100 Peperos with sprinkles, icing etc. I think it was a fun experience for the children and much better than just going to the store and buying a box of peperos. This way to children got to enjoy the process while they consumed too much chocolate. I purchased 4 different flavors of chocolate chips which can be seen in the picture below. The picture on the right shows Lexy carefully applying a layer of chocolate to her bread stick. It was a messy but sweet process and the students thoroughly enjoyed it. I was also able to make a few extra peperos for co-teachers and gain a few brownie points.
The four different flavors we used for our peperos. Mango, white chocolate, regular chocolate and blueberry. Of course we had lots of different sprinkles to complete the project.
Three young students showing off the finished product. Originally each student made 4, but only 2 peperos survived the class to be taken home, the other two were too tempting and consumed almost immediately after completion.
Are there any unique or special holidays in your country that aren't celebrated worldwide?
