15 Things you never knew about Valentine's Day
Everybody knows Valentine’s Day is a day of romance and love. After all, it’s the holiday for writing love notes and watching sweet rom-coms and telling your friends how much you love them.
Some cynics say Valentine’s Day is just a manufactured holiday to sell greeting cards, chocolates and flowers. And while it’s true that Valentine’s Day sees a big rush of spending, the holiday actually has a long history dating back to Christian martyrs and Roman fertility festivals. How many roses are grown for Valentine’s Day each year? When was the first Valentine sent, and where did Cupid come from? These fascinating facts about Valentine's Day will put the holiday in a whole new light.
1. St. Valentine wasn't just one person.
Many people know that Valentine’s Day is named after St. Valentine. But did you know there are actually two St. Valentines? Nobody knows for sure if the holiday originally celebrated St. Valentine of Rome or St. Valentine of Terni, both of whom were martyred. Legends say that St. Valentine of Rome was a priest who defied the Roman Emperor Claudius II's ban on soldiers getting married and continuing to marry couples in secret. Other stories say that he helped Christians escape Roman prisons and fell in love with the jailer’s daughter, writing her a letter signed "From your Valentine."
2. Valentine's Day has its roots in an ancient Pagan festival.
Valentine’s Day also has pagan roots alongside its connection to St. Valentine. It may have originated in Lupercalia, a festival of fertility celebrated on February 15 in ancient Rome. Lupercalia was dedicated to the Roman god of agriculture, Faunus, and the founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. It was celebrated with animal sacrifices and gently slapping women and crop fields with goat hides dipped in blood, which was thought to help fertility.
3. In the 1300s, it officially became a holiday associated with love.
The origins of Valentine’s Day are murky. But it is thought to have been made a holiday in the fifth century when Pope Gelasius outlawed the celebration of Lupercalia. It wasn’t until much later that it became associated with romance. In the Middle Ages, it was believed that February 14 was the start of birds’ mating season. Chaucer cemented the connection between Valentine’s Day, birds and romance with his 1375 poem “Parliament of Foules,” writing, “For this was on Seynt Valentynes day, / Whan every foul cometh ther to chese his make.” The rest, as they say, is history!
4. Cupid has roots in Greek mythology.
Watch out around Valentine’s Day, or else you may be struck by Cupid’s arrow. According to Time, the ubiquitous cherub can be traced back to 700 B.C. In Ancient Greece, Eros, the Greek god of love, was depicted as a handsome young man and had the power to make people fall madly in love. Over time, he was adopted by the Romans and became known as Cupid, his image changing to the little boy with the bow and arrow. Because of his love-inspiring powers, he became linked to Valentine’s Day by the turn of the 19th century.
5. The first Valentine was sent in the 15th century.
According to History.com, the oldest Valentine we have record of is from 1415. Charles, Duke of Orleans, wrote it to his wife while he was a political prisoner in the Tower of London. One of the lines in the poem? "I am already sick of love, My very gentle Valentine." Swoon!
6. Not until the 1840s did we get the first mass-produced Valentines.
In the 17th century, people started exchanging cards and letters with their lovers and friends. But the first mass-produced Valentines didn’t arrive on the scene until the 1840s. Known as the "Mother of the American Valentine," Esther A. Howland sold cards with lace and ribbons that commercialized Valentines in America.
7. The tradition of giving Valentine's Day flowers dates back to the 17th century.
Giving red roses may be an obvious romantic gesture today, but it wasn't always! In the late 1700s, Lady Montagu was the wife of the British ambassador to Turkey. She misunderstood a local custom of using rhyming words to convey secret messages and thought the flowers themselves that were used in the rhymes represented secret meaning. This idea of “flower language” caught on in Europe, where specific flowers could represent feelings of love, hate, regret and more. Over time, red roses became more and more linked with romance.
8. Nearly 250 million roses are grown in preparation for Valentine's Day each year.
We take red roses for granted as a Valentine’s Day staple. But roses actually don’t grow in February weather in the U.S. because it’s too cold. Instead, millions of flowers are grown around the world and shipped to the UK specifically for February 14th. Most of the roses we gift for Valentine’s Day come from Ecuador, Kenya and Columbia.
9. Booklets were created to help people write Valentines.
If you needed help finding the right words to send to your loved ones in the 19th century, you could purchase a Valentine's Writer. The booklets contained sample text that could be used to express your love.
10. The first heart-shaped box of chocolates was introduced in 1861.
It was created by Richard Cadbury, son of Cadbury founder John Cadbury, who started packaging chocolates in fancy boxes to increase sales. He introduced the first heart-shaped box of chocolates for V-Day in 1861, and today, more than 36 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolates are sold each year.
11. It's celebrated differently around the world.
Many Latin American countries know the holiday as el día de los enamorados (day of lovers) or día del amor y la amistad (day of love and friendship). Though couples exchange flowers and chocolate on this day, the holiday's focus is also directed at showing gratitude to friends.
In Japan, it's customary for just the women to give confections to the men in their lives, with the quality of the chocolate indicating their true feelings, according to Fortune. On March 14, exactly a month later, the men repay the favor by celebrating the increasingly popular "White Day."
12. “XOXO” didn't always mean hugs and kisses.
“XOXO” is a popular signature this time of year. The origins of the signature, however, stem from the Middle Ages. The Washington Post reported that during those times the “X” symbolized the Christian cross, and letters ended with the sign of the cross and a kiss to symbolize an oath. As the gesture became more popular in literature, letters and paperwork, it came to mean something had been “sealed with a kiss.”
13. Children can be the real Valentine's Day winners.
Valentine's Day has typically been associated with romantic love and partnership. Interestingly enough, according to a Today show survey that polled 1,500 people, only 59% of spouses planned on giving their partners a gift, while 85% of parents planned to give their children something on February 14.
14. Lovebirds are actual birds.
While the term “lovebirds” has become a popular figure of speech, it’s also the common name for Agapornis birds. This bird is a type of parrot that is native to the continent of Africa and can be found throughout the eastern and southern regions. The animals typically travel in pairs, which is why many couples are referred to as lovebirds.
15. William Shakespeare inspired a tradition.
Writing “letters to Juliet” has become a Valentine's Day tradition for many, and even inspired the 2010 film Letters to Juliet. Around Valentine's Day, thousands of letters are sent to Verona, Italy addressed to the Romeo and Juliet character Juliet Capulet. These love letters to Juliet are filled with emotion, passion and, in many cases, heartbreak. Volunteers, called Juliet's Secretaries, read through each letter, write responses and pick a winner of the “Cara Giulietta”(which translates to “Dear Juliet” in English) prize. The winner gets to visit Juliet's home in Verona and attend a special ceremony.
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