Nov 11, 20192 min read

11 K-Pop Songs to Set the Mood for Pepero Day (Korean Valentine's Day)

Updated: Feb 24, 2023

It's November 11 and you know what that means. Happy Pepero Day! Pepe-what you ask? Pepero Day is a holiday on par with Valentine’s Day and White Day in Korea, where couples and friends exchange Pepero with each other as a demonstration of their love and appreciation for one another. While many grumble that the event is less of a real occasion than a chance for snack companies to rake in some cash, Pepero Day continues to be popular in Korea and has become a quirky part of the local culture. Students at school, co-workers at companies, and even proselytizers pass out boxes of the crunchy, chocolate-covered snacks. Giving them out is similar to handing out a Valentine as it can be a platonic gesture or have romantic overtones.

Pepero Day falls on November 11 because the skinny snacks resemble the numerals in the abbreviated form of the date — 11/11.

Before Pepero Day became a full-fledged phenomenon, the snacks were exchanged among high school girls wishing for — you guessed it — a skinny body. The myth has it that eating a Pepero snack on November 11 at 11:11 a.m. will make a person skinny, just like a Pepero stick. Some would even wait for the eleventh second into the minute for better "results."

Yes, it's a cash cow. Pepero Day is reportedly the most profitable day for convenience stores and up to 30 percent of all annual Pepero sales occur within a week of Pepero Day, according to Consumer Report Korea.

Let's focus on more wholesome aspect of Pepero Day and that's love. There's always time to get in the mood for love — and what better way to set the mood than with some pop tracks? Korean pop, in this case. K-Pop is flooded with songs that address the ups and downs of relationships while trying to understand the emotion that makes people do crazy things.

For Pepero Day, we picked 11 MVs that depict all sorts of romance: happy ones, sad ones, lustful ones, innocent ones and even one or two quirky ones. We also put together a special Pepero playlist to include the whole range of the phenomena that we call love.

Check out our picks below.