Happy Pepero Day!

Korea is commercial. It is rumored to house to the greatest square footage of shopping space per capita. Its market for fake luxury brand products demonstrates that it is obviously plagued by conspicuous consumption. It is home to several world-class conglomerates (Samsung, LG and Hyundai are the most obvious here and abroad), and one decade after the IMF bailout, it still has a pretty liberal economy to boot.

But Peppero Day takes the cake. Or cookie, if you will.

I first saw evidence of this November 11 (11/11) holiday on November 10, when walking past a convenience store. Buy the Way had lined the walkway to its store with pink and red tissue paper, stuffed animals, baskets and chocolate - lots and lots of chocolate. 7-11 put a booth at the outdoor corner of its store selling similar goods. It looked like Valentine's Day at the wrong time of year. And it is. Well, sort of.

I have since been told that, in Korea, November 11 is Pepero Day - a commercial holiday allegedly created by Lotte Confectionary, makers of Pepero, a stick of graham wafer dipped in chocolate. A stick of Pepero, as Wikipedia and other teachers at The School tell me, looks like a number one. Better yet, five sticks in a row look like 11/11, the day of the celebration. The 'lovers' or 'couple' theme that the stuffed animals and other goodies take are only a cover for the holiday that Lotte created (although the company says that it simply adopted the holiday created by high school girls in Busan who exchanged Pepero as a symbol of friendship about a decade ago).

I only wonder if the melamine crisis - found in Lotte chocolates when it was discovered in Korea - will dampen sales further and encourage Lotte to do away with this cute but silly holiday. Other commentators are optimistic: Lotte earns about two thirds of its 1.15 trillion won annual revenue (a bit less than US $1 billion) in the two months leading up to 11/11. But not just Lotte benefits. Other confectioners hop on the 11/11 bandwagon by repackaging their goods into long, thin tubes, boxes and bags. Office supplies stores do the same.

Since I was given my first box this morning, I have eaten far too many sticks of Pepero in all kinds of sizes and flavours, and have ruined both my lunch and my dinner. That's something a poppy just can't do.