Interesting Facts About Valentine’s Day

History

According to some interpretations, Saint Valentine was the priest of a temple during Emperor Claudius’ reign. Claudius had imprisoned Saint Valentine for disobeying his law and helping young men and women in getting married. He was given a death sentence. While in jail, Saint Valentine fell in love with the jailor’s daughter and wrote her a love note ending with “From your Valentine”.

Another story states that a Saint named Valentine was very fond of children. He too was imprisoned for not honoring other Gods. Children missed him and sent messages to him through the bars in jail.

There is no sure evidence of the origin of Valentine’s Day and varying opinions surround it.

Interesting facts

• Partners
  • During the Middle Ages girls believed that the first man they see on this day would be their future spouse.
    
  • In Medieval times, girls ate bizarre foods on this day to dream of their future spouse.
    People interpreted a women’s seeing of different birds to their marriage with rich or poor man.
• Cards
• The trend of exchanging cards and gifts started during the seventeenth century.
  
• Printed cards became an alternative to hand written letters in the eighteenth century.
  
• Every year one billion cards are sent on this festival, making it the second largest occasion after Christmas.
• Women are more actively involved in buying valentine greetings.
• Gifts
• The first Valentine gift was sent by Duke of Orleans to his wife in 1415 after he was captured.
  
• In Wales love spoons are gifted on Valentine’s Day with splendid carvings on them.
  
• Candies were among the earliest Valentine’s Day gifts.
  
• The first Valentine's Day box of chocolates was introduced in 1868 by Richard Cadbury.
• Flowers
• Red rose was the favorite flower of Venus, the Roman Goddess of love.
  
• 73% of people who buy Valentine's Day flowers are men, while only 27 percent are women.
• Symbols
• Cupid is a symbol of Valentine’s Day. Cupid is believed to strike lovers with his magical arrows and arouse love.
  
• The heart is the most common symbol of love. In ancient cultures human soul was believed to live in the heart.
• Birds
• Lovebirds are associated with Valentine's Day because they sit very close to their mates.
  
• Doves are associated with the V-Day because they are symbols of love and loyalty. They have only one mate in a lifetime.
  
• Valentine Day is connected with the term fertility as birds used to mate with their partners on this day even before the birth of Saint Valentine.
• Other Facts
• Verona, city where Shakespeare's Juliet lived, receives around 1,000 letters every year on V-Day sent to Juliet.
  
• In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew the name of their valentine from a bowl and wore it pinned on their sleeves for a week.