Pepero Day 2026: How Korea Turned a Biscuit Into a Gift-Giving Holiday

Tomorrow is November 11, four thin 1s in a row on the calendar. In Korea those digits belong to Pepero, Lotte Wellfood’s chocolate-coated biscuit stick. Friends, classmates, coworkers, and partners hand over boxes the way other places reach for Valentine chocolate, except the gift looks like the date itself.

The snack came first. Aju Press dates Pepero’s debut to April 1983, when Lotte Confectionery, now Lotte Wellfood, put a biscuit stick dipped in chocolate on Korean shelves. The holiday came later. The Korea Times, reconstructing the record in 2024, found the first newspaper mention of “Pepero Day” in November 1996, when teenage girls in Gyeongsang Province were already trading sticks and joking about staying as slim as the biscuits. Regional sales staff had noticed November spikes and reported them to headquarters. In 1997 Lotte started using the name and handed out free boxes in big cities. A company official told the Times consumers started it. The company’s marketing is what made the day national.

The gift people still reach for is that original chocolate stick in the red box. Almond, white cookie, and crunchier coated versions fill the same convenience-store endcaps every November. Shoppers buy multipacks, write short notes, and pass them across desks and classroom aisles. Because November 11 falls on a weekday this year, Herald Business expects strong sales of what retailers call “loyalty Pepero,” the casual boxes coworkers exchange with no romance required.

This week Lotte is moving the date around the city. On November 2 the company announced “Pepero Heart Attack,” a pop-up built around a wrapped campaign bus and the slogan “Don’t hesitate on Pepero Day!” The route includes Hongdae, Gwanghwamun, Seongsu, and school campuses, with Stray Kids-tied stops in tourist-heavy districts. SBS English put the bus at Kwangwoon University today and in Seongsu-dong tomorrow, with a marching-band parade planned for Seongsu. Asiae photographed shoppers at a 7-Eleven New Wave store in Myeongdong printing custom labels onto Pepero, the small move that turns a multipack into a named gift.

Abroad, November 11 now travels with Stray Kids. Lotte signed the group as Pepero’s global ambassadors in May 2025 and renewed the deal in April, The Korea Herald reported. On September 10 the company released “November 11,” a digital single written and composed by member HAN, then put the track under this year’s commercials. Seoul Economic Daily said the 2026 ads, cut in student and office-worker versions, passed 10 million cumulative views within six days. Seoul landmarks such as Gyeongbokgung and Cheonggyecheon show up in the frame for viewers who have never spent November in Korea.

Behind the ads sit the export numbers. The Herald and Sedaily both put Pepero’s 2025 overseas sales near 87 billion won, about 25 percent above the prior year’s roughly 70 billion. Lotte’s Pepero Day global campaign map grew from 15 regions in 2024 to 35 in 2025. This year Herald Business lists a Times Square board through November 15, the fourth straight year there since 2023, plus ads at Koreatown Plaza in Los Angeles through November 14 and Stray Kids creative in 14 Lotte Mart stores in Vietnam. Korea JoongAng Daily adds a Hanoi pop-up at West Lake mall, photo zones in Almaty on the day itself, and retail pushes through the Philippines, Thailand, and Kuala Lumpur’s airport duty-free shops, with more stops planned in Peru, Ecuador, Australia, and Germany. Fans can still enter the Instagram “Play With Pepero” event through February 5, 2027, for one of 111 invitations to a Seoul meet-and-greet next April, where Stray Kids are set to perform the collaboration track live.

Japan keeps its own November 11 snack date around Pocky and Pretz, later certified through the Japan Anniversary Association, the Korea Times notes. Pepero Day grew from the same kind of calendar joke, then stuck. Tomorrow the boxes move across Korean counters again. This year the date also sits on a billboard in Los Angeles, a screen in Times Square, and a Stray Kids song that says the holiday out loud.