Pepero Day and Garaetteok Day: Why Korea Marks November 11

Rice cake sticks and chocolate biscuit sticks arranged to form the number 11 for Korea's November 11 food days

November 11 in South Korea is three things at once: a government-designated Farmers' Day (농업인의 날), a rice-promotion campaign called Garaetteok Day (가래떡데이), and Pepero Day (빼빼로데이), when people give each other chocolate-coated biscuit sticks. All three lean on the same visual joke, the number 11 looking like two sticks. This guide separates what each day officially is, what is known and not known about where Pepero Day came from, and what the rice and export figures say about why both days still matter.

One Date, Three Meanings

Day	Origin	Who runs it
Farmers' Day (농업인의 날, Nongeobinui Nal)	Designated in 1996 as a statutory commemorative day	The agriculture ministry
Garaetteok Day (가래떡데이)	Designated in 2006, ten years after Farmers' Day, to publicize it and encourage rice consumption	Government and farm groups; local governments and Nonghyup stage events
Pepero Day (빼빼로데이)	A gift-giving custom, promoted by confectioner Lotte	A commercial and social custom rather than an official day

The 1996 designation under the Kim Young-sam government is described in a Sidae News explainer. The 2006 start of Garaetteok Day, and its stated purpose, appear in a 2024 report on Daegu's event and a News Seoul report on a Rural Development Administration event.

Why November 11 for Farmers? A Character Pun

The date is chosen through Chinese characters, which Koreans still use for wordplay. The Sidae News explainer and the Daegu report both explain that the character for earth or soil, 土 (to), can be broken into 十 and 一, the numerals ten and one. Written as "ten-one," 11 becomes "soil," which links the date to farming. The pun explains why a day about farmers fell on November 11, long before any snack company used the date.

Korea has other numeric days built the same way. Rice Day (쌀의 날, August 18) comes from reading the character for rice, 米, as eight, ten, and eight (八十八), and the ministry ties this to the idea that growing a grain of rice takes 88 steps of farmers' work, according to Economy News. Together, these show how Korean campaigns often turn a character or number into a calendar date.

What Garaetteok Day Looks Like

Garaetteok (가래떡) is a long, cylindrical, unsliced rice cake, the raw form of the tteok used in tteokbokki and tteokguk. Garaetteok Day events are almost always giveaways of freshly made sticks. The agency reports linked above give examples:

Daegu, 2024: volunteers handed out garaetteok made from domestic rice at Jungang-ro Station, and the city distributed about 2,500 garaetteok lunch boxes.
Pyeongtaek, 2022: three-colored garaetteok made from a new rice variety named Kkummaji (꿈마지) were given out at the station square, alongside a flower-buying campaign. The purpose was to support rice and flower farmers during a price slump, per a News Seoul report.
Seoul, 2015: Nonghyup hosted a "2015 Garaetteok Day" in Insadong.

The format is consistent from year to year: free tteok, domestic rice, and a message about buying rice. For other food days and festivals around Korea, see our guide to regional food festivals.

The Rice Problem Behind the Rice Cake

Garaetteok Day exists because Koreans eat less rice every year. The National Data Office's 2025 Grain Consumption Survey, reported by Kyunghyang Shinmun, found:

Measure	2025 result
Rice per person per year	53.9 kg, down 3.4% from 2024, the lowest since the survey began in 1962
Rice per person per day	147.7 g, the first time below 150 g
For comparison, 1995	106.5 kg per person per year
Rice cake (tteok) production use	Up 32.1%, which the article links to K-food export demand

In other words, per-person consumption has roughly halved since 1995, and the yearly declines have been getting larger: -0.4% in 2022, -0.6% in 2023, -1.1% in 2024, and -3.4% in 2025. The same survey shows rice used in processed foods rising, with rice cakes growing fastest. Other reports on the same survey give different totals for processing use, so this guide does not quote them. The takeaway is that rice is leaving the dinner bowl and entering packaged foods and exports, which is the shift Garaetteok Day tries to reverse by putting plain rice cake back in people's hands.

Pepero Day: What Is Known About Its Origin

Pepero (빼빼로) was launched by Lotte in 1983, and the company says cumulative sales have reached about 2.15 trillion won, or roughly 3.7 billion boxes of the original chocolate version, according to Money Today, which attributes the figures to Lotte Wellfood. The same report says sales rose sharply after Pepero Day caught on in the mid-1990s.

The origin of the day itself is less settled. One widely repeated account, retold by inews24, says a Lotte sales representative in the Gyeongnam region noticed in 1994 that shops kept asking for extra Pepero every November 11. He found that middle-school girls in Busan had a custom of exchanging the snack, with the wish to grow tall and slim like the stick. In that telling, Lotte did not invent the day, and it began full-scale Pepero Day marketing in the 2000s. The article gives no source for the story and no official Lotte statement about it, so treat it as a popular account rather than documented history. A Sidae News explainer instead says a confectioner began using November 11 in marketing in 1997, without naming the company, which shows the dates differ between accounts.

Pepero Goes Global

Lotte now treats the day as an export tool. According to Bizwatch, citing Lotte Wellfood at the Thaifex trade show in Bangkok on May 26, 2026, Pepero exports reached 87 billion won last year, up 25%. Money Today says exports passed 100 million units for the first time in 2024 and that Pepero is sold in about 50 countries. Money Today also reports that Lotte has begun local production in India, its first overseas production of the product, and a Hankyung Magazine report says the company aims to build Pepero into a 1-trillion-won global brand.

Lotte's overseas plan also includes marketing Pepero Day itself. Bizwatch reports a campaign with the group Stray Kids as global ambassador that began in May 2025, with videos reaching about 160 million views, and export packages that use the "No. 1 in Korea" wording. Hankyung Magazine also shows a Pepero Day event in New York's Times Square. These are company claims, and the reports do not give independent sales data for individual overseas markets.

For another food day with an official date and a clear set of customs, see our guide to Hansik Day on October 24.

FAQ

What is November 11 in Korea?
It is Farmers' Day, designated in 1996, as well as Garaetteok Day, started in 2006 to promote rice, and Pepero Day, when people give each other Lotte's Pepero sticks.

Why is Farmers' Day on November 11?
The character 土 (earth) can be split into 十 and 一, ten and one, so 11 is read as a pun on soil and farming.

Did Lotte invent Pepero Day?
Sources do not agree. A popular account says schoolgirls in Busan started exchanging Pepero in the 1990s and Lotte later promoted it, but the account is not backed by a published source, and another explainer dates a company's use of the date to 1997.

Verified as of November 1, 2026. Pepero sales and export figures are company-reported. Rice consumption figures are from the National Data Office's 2025 Grain Consumption Survey as reported by Kyunghyang Shinmun.