✮ Happy Pepero Day 빼빼로데이 11/11 ✮

November 11th is a special day celebrated by Koreans, it's called Pepero Day (빼빼로데이)! This day is supposedly very similar with Valentine's Day (which happens on February 14th). "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 11 and after continued popularity they decided to then encourage the holiday with special gift boxes and other promotions." (source) Some people might be more familiar with a similar snack called Pocky. Both are basically the same thing, though. Unfortunately, in my country we only celebrate Valentine's Day... so I'll just eat a box of Pepero by myself. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Pepero is also quite popular because of 'Pepero Game'. The game takes two people, each person biting a side of Pepero. They have to bite the Pepero until it gets smaller and smaller. If both continue, the two participants' lips will touch. Whoever breaks the kiss, losses the game. Usually it's also a battle between groups; the group that has the smaller remaining Pepero wins. It's a game that's been played a lot in Korean variety shows (Running Man is one example).^^

 

Don't forget to eat a box of Pepero today, to make you feel more Korean! ^ㅂ^

☆★ Happy Hangeul Day 2013 (한글날) ☆★

Hangeul Day (한글날) is celebrated on October 9, 2013 - the day King Sejong announced Hangeul to the public in 1446. We also want to celebrate this day by writing our blog's name (Oppa-Jjang) in Hangeul (Korean Alphabet). Both of us can read and write Hangeul - although most of the time we can hardly know the meaning. Learning Hangeul is not that difficult, because basically it has a definite shape for the letters - unlike Chinese letters which have different shapes for each word. For those of you who love k-stuffs like we do, it's a great advantage to learn how to read hangeul and understand Korean language. Because then we can understand our oppas better! Below is our selca for Hangeul Day occasion (´・ω・人・ω・`) Plus, we included simple Korean phrases for you to learn.