It’s November 11th, and in Japan, that means it’s Pocky Day!
I’m sure many of you know what Pocky is. But just in case you don’t know, Pocky is a candy biscuit snack. It’s a long stick of biscuit usually coated with chocolate. It’s popular all over the world. You should be able to find some in supermarkets in the asian foods section (usually)
Interesting trivia: Pocky Day is also Azusa’s birthday!
In addition, you see it in anime all the time! Over recent years, Pocky has been used in anime to depict intimate situations, usually involving two people sharing a single pocky stick. It’s probably because sharing a single stick involves close proximity, similar to a kiss.
Pocky was first sold in 1966, it’s called Pocky because it’s the sound it makes when you eat it. “????”. It remained a popular snack, and an Almond flavor was introduced in 1971, followed by a Strawberry flavor in 1977.
Pocky Day isn’t actually an official holiday or anything. It’s more of a corporate brainwashing that the makers of Pocky (Glico) decided to do on an annual basis to basically remind people to go out and buy some Pocky. On Pocky Day, Glico makes special advertisements, and people buy Pocky as gifts for their friends.
So how did Pocky Day come about? It actually didn’t originate from Japan or Glico, but from Korea.
A Korean company (Lotte) copied Pocky and came up with their own product called PePero. It’s exactly the same thing as Pocky. Korean school girls were the ones that came up with PePero Day, where they would give each other PePero sticks and wish them to grow tall and slender like a PePero stick.
Lotte denies anything about starting Pepero day, and simply claims that they notice a spike in Pepero sales on 11/11 every year.
I guess Glico, or Japanese schoolkids took notice of this, and made their own Pocky Day. The thing is, it hasn’t really gained much popularity. It’s mainly through Glico’s advertising campaigns that have sparked an increase awareness for Pocky Day.
Interesting Trivia of events that happened on November 11th as well –
It’s also Veteran’s Day (US) and Remembrance Day (Canada) and other parts of the world.
It’s Leonardo DiCaprio’s birthday
NASA launched the Gemini 12
It’s Singles Day in China
This year, it’s AFA 11
One of my facebook fan’s birthday is today.
For this special day, I made a Pocky Day illustration. Watch the youtube video here!
[pro-player]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVe30kJIeuU[/pro-player]
Read more!
Happy Veteran’s (and Pocky) day!
Yes happy Pocky day!! Did you know it was also K-ON’s Azuza’s b-day . . hmm. Great illustration (^-^)d
11th November sure has a lot of stuff involved 😮
Remembrance Day is commemorated within most of the Commonwealth (not just Canada)! That being said, I notice that the poppy is still being worn by individuals in Hong Kong while I was walking on the streets recently; it’s nice to see there are still people who remember and show respect the sacrifices of soldiers they have paid in times of war even in Hong Kong after it no longer belongs to the Commonwealth.
That’s some nice history and info on the Pocky itself. I used to eat it a lot along with Pretz, but not so much these days. Had always wondered why it’s been called Pocky Day for some time.
On the other hand 11th November 2011 is also a popular day for marriage in China, because with a lot of “1”s it can refer to ????, ????, ???? (Literal translation: One Husband, One Wife, One Heart, One Mind, One Life, One Lifetime), which is an interest contrast to Singles Day that is also observed in the same nation.
I remember Pretz! Yeah, I got over Pretz. My love of Pocky will never die…
Good to see that there are people in HK still wearing poppies! It’s very well observed here in Canada as well. I think we’re down to a very small number of veterans from WW2… there was a question posed “Will Remembrance Day be less observed when the last WW2 veteran dies?” my answer would be no. We have more wars nowadays than ever before, all over the world. Unfortunately, I don’t think Remembrance Day will ever go away. 🙁
I didn’t know that about marriage! Interesting! But you won’t see that happen very often in North America since it gets so cold during winter. Lots of people tend to get married during the summer months.
Oh, that’s quite interesting, never knew pocky was that old. I do remember the significance of pocky though. During the high school days it was the first taste of genuine “Japanese cuisine”. It was quite interesting to hold in my hands something I had seen several times in Japanese media. I even ended importing a couple of boxes back in the day. Nowadays I seen it on a shelf at Wal-Mart how times change.
I agree, times have changed. I’m even seeing Tayaki around now! SO GOOD!! 😀
I noticed a bunch of Pocky and Azusa pics on the 11th going around Twitter, now I know what was going on. Pocky Day sounds like a different version of white day, but it’s exclusive to just one company.
Yep, Azusa’s birthday is also on Pocky Day. So it all makes sense! Yes, it does sound very similar to White Day.
That’s some pretty interesting information I’ve learned today! It’s amazing that so many events happen on the same day…
I found a HUGE list of events, but well, most of them are really hard to follow lol!
I love pocky! My favorite is the strawberry kind. I like the chocolate kind but chocolate tends to make me sick…
Though I wish I knew about Pocky day when it happened! I’ll have to try to remember it next year and remember my veterans with a box of Pocky.
Did you do an allergy test? Sometimes chocolate contains traces of nuts, that that could cause you to get sick.
Had no idea Pocky has its own day haha!
Ive only come around to reading this post as well due to the fact Skyrim came out the same day…
This is actually really interesting i always thought Pocky was Japanese born and thus why its so big over there, no idea it was from Korea!
SKYRIMMMMMM!! I decided to not buy that game knowing very well that it’d be a time sink, and I don’t have time for that. 🙁
Actually, Pocky DID originate from Japan. Korea copied it. However, the Pocky Day “holiday” originated from Korea.