Pepero Day....Only in Korea......

...Strange one this, but I felt it worthy of a blog note for you to read during another lightning fast week at school.

I was informed yesterday that today 11th November, universally celebrated around the world as the 'End of all Wars' is in Korea known as 'Pepero Day.'

For those of your familar with Christmas snacks, peperos are pretty similar to 'Matchmakers' but have biscuit inside instead of mint or orange etc....
So Pepero Day is basically when friends exchange chocolates with one another to show their appreciation to each other. It's also a Korean version of Valentine's Day so shops are stocked full of Peperos attached to cuddly toys and gifts that loved ones are supposed to share with one another.

Last friday when I was shopping I saw piles and piles of these and mistakenly thought they were early preperations for Christmas, now I understand what their true meaning is!

I got a couple of packets from the kids this morning and then at various points in the afternoon kids either gave me a packet or just gave me a couple out of ones they had been given which was very generous. Apparently kids have been encouraged to exchange healthier snacks than Peperos but I don't think they would be too willing to say exchange carrot sticks or celery instead of chcolate!

Looking at some information on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepero) about this strange phenomenon, Korean's believe that the little sticks of chocolate look like the number one so 11/11 is a good chance to share chocolate with one another. It's a shame there isn't a 00/00 as I'm sure they would probably share cookies or something with one another!

Not a very long blog post (or a very interesting one) but that's how life is during the weeks (and some weekends) these days. I thought I'd share a little experience I had today which kept me entertained and I now wish there were more days in the year when chocolates were freely exchanged between people!

Ben x

"He who has a thousand friends, has not a friend to spare, While he who has one enemy Shall meet him everywhere."

Ralph Waldo Emerson