Chocolate covered cuteness

To the Korean eye the digit one looks like a cutesy stick of chocolate. So every year on the eleventh day of the eleventh month they celebrate four columns of cookie dipped in chocolate syrup.

Some say Pepero Day was cooked up an enterprising young marketing mind at Lotte. Inspired by Pocky, the Japanese brand of candy sticks, Lotte has been hawking its Pepero sticks since the early eighties.

Since then the holiday has snowballed into a nation craze, so popular Lotte now sells more than half its Pepero sticks in November. We noticed gift wrapped chocolates about two weeks ago, saw sprinkles in the air.

Pleased singles get to celebrate, we bought boxes for all our students. Clutching one blown up pack concealing eight boxes of Pepero, I made the rounds offering chocolate to everyone in the office. Then the first gift came my way, when Julie, a fourth grader, handed me a box of yellow Ferreros.

All day long we spun the trade, rationing out candy prizes and greedily accepting brides coated in candied walnuts. With my eight-pack of Pepero boxes handed out, I re-filled the gift box to its brim with teacher presents, and went home to nurse a chocolate coated stomach.