10 interesting Facts about Valentine’s Day

• Published by Editorial Staff
• Posted on February 13, 2013
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Love is in the air as it is Valentine’s Day. Now who wouldn’t be familiar with this great day meant for sharing love gestures? Couples desperately wait for 14th February to express their feelings to their partners. Though everyone must be familiar with the day’s history but let’s take a quick look at it. The story is about a young Roman priest named Saint Valentinus who secretly performed matrimonial ceremonies of the soldiers belonging to Claudius II. The Emperor had forbidden his soldiers to get married fearing that they might not be able to concentrate on fighting wars. Saint Valentinus was hanged on 14th February 270 A.D. and since then the day is celebrated every year. While he was imprisoned he sent his last love note to the jailor’s daughter with an ending sign, “From your valentine”. Now that sounds familiar!

In ancient times the Romans celebrated a festival called Lupercalia on 15th February to honor the queen of Roman gods and goddesses, Juno also known as the goddess of women and marriage. A pairing up ceremony of young men and women also took place on this day; Saint Valentinus helped these couples get married secretly. After his death the date of this occasion was changed to 14th February and was named “St. Valentine’s Day” in his honor. This day was officially declared as a holiday by King Henry VII of England in 1537.
You must have gotten chocolates, flowers and other gifts ready for your valentine, but here are some fun facts that you can also share with your partner on that day:

1. In medieval times girls ate bizarre foods as they believed that this would enable them to meet their future spouse in their dreams on this day. In middle ages, names of young men and women were drawn from a bowl and were declared each other’s valentines. These names were then pinned to their sleeves for everyone to witness for one week. That’s how the famous expression, “to wear your heart on your sleeve” originated.
2. Valentine’s Day has been claimed to be, “Number 1 holiday for florists”. This one particular day brings in business of worth $14.7 billion that is similar to the GDP of Iceland.
3. Each year 189million flowers are sold in U.S. on Valentine’s Day out of which approximately 110 million are red. So from where do all those flowers come? 60% of American roses are produced in California but on Valentine’s Day 90% flowers are imported from Columbia and Ecuador.
4. People who buy flowers on this day are 73 % men and only 27 % women. Out of this minimal number of 27% there are 15% of women who buy flowers only for themselves in U.S. A number of women also buy flowers for their mothers and daughters on Valentine’s Day.
5. In late 1800s the first box of chocolate was introduces by Richard Cadbury exclusively for Valentine’s Day. Each year more than 35 million heart shaped chocolate boxes are sold particularly for this day out of which chocolate worth $1billion are purchased in the U.S. alone.
6. The average number of wedding proposals taking place on Valentine’s Day is 220,000 and it is 10% of the total marriage proposals taking place in a year. This means if you were in Scottsdale, Arizona everyone would be making a proposal.
7. Interesting for those who have pets, well 9 million people that is 3% of the pet owners prefer celebrating Valentine’s Day with their pets and get them gifts. The reason is that most pet owners consider animals to be more grateful and loyal than humans.
8. In Bangkok a bunch of dozen roses are sold at the rate of $487 and for one Rose $45 is charged. In Hong Kong it is for $205, in Singapore $148, in London, UK $96, in Africa $90 and in U.S. $ 75 would be charged for a bunch. So all of those who consider Roses to be cheap should think again because they are certainly not on Valentine’s Day.
9. Each color of rose sent on Valentine’s day have some meaning e.g. red rose means love and respect, pink says, “I am having sweet thoughts about you” and white rose stands for purity and states, “I am worthy of you”. Also the number of roses also counts for instance, 1 stands for love at first sight, 12 is to say, “I love you”, 108 recommended for marriage proposals and 999 means “we’ll always be together.”
10. Approximately 8 billion candy hearts are manufactured each year for Valentine’s Day; this means there are enough candies to be stretched 20 times from Italy to Arizona back and forth.

Besides the fact that Valentine’s Day is for happy and cheerful couples there are still 40% people who feel negatively about it. A survey proves that one out of every 10 single people feel lonelier, depressed and more insecure on this day.

Know some other facts or stories around Valentines Day? share with us in comments.

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