Valentine’s Day Trivial Facts – Happy Valentines Day!

Valentine’s Day is a tradition enjoyed by millions of people worldwide.  On February 14^th,  sixty-two percent of Americans celebrate Valentine’s Day, according to History.com. To help get you in the mood for love Country Living Magazine even put together a list of Valentine’s Day Trivial Facts.

14-Fun-Loving Valentine’s Day Trivial Facts

1. Valentine’s Day is believed to have been started as a Roman fertility festival. Romans celebrated Lupercalia, an ancient pagan fertility festival. Each year between February 13^th and 15^th,  they sacrificed animals and slapped women with their hides. This act was believed to make the women more fertile. They would later be matched off with the men by lottery, according to Britannica.com.

2. Was there more than one St. Valentine? One legend has it that the holiday’s patron saint was a third-century Roman priest who secretly wed young couples. The priest defied Emperor Claudius II Gothicus who had outlawed soldiers from marrying. When the priest’s actions were discovered,  he was martyred.

Another legend tells of a priest, from the same period, who was jailed for helping Christians escape brutal Roman prisons. He fell in love with a young woman who visited him, signing a letter to her, “From Your Valentine,” a sweet endearment we still use today.

3. Valentine’s Day became a romantic holiday in the Middle Ages. Valentine’s Day didn’t become associated with love and marriage until medieval times, when it was believed that the mating season of birds began on February 14th.

4. The very first valentine is said to have been a poem. Charles, Duke of Orleans, was imprisoned in the Tower of London after his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. In 1415, he wrote a poem to his wife, “I am already sick of love, My very gentle Valentine.” Unfortunately, it would be 20 long years until the 21-year-old Charles would be released.

5. Wearing your heart on your sleeve was a real thing. In the Middle Ages, a festival honored the Goddess Juno. Roman men would draw the names of women they would be partnered with for the following year. According to Smithsonian.com, they would then show off the name of their intended by wearing it on their sleeves for the rest of the celebration.

6. Cupid was a Greed god.  In 700 B.C., the handsome, masculine Eros was able to make mortals fall in love (or hate) with his magical arrows. The Romans remade Eros into Cupid, the cute little chubby baby with the bow and arrow, around the 4th century BCE. But, as Time.com reports, it wasn’t until the turn of the 19th century that Cupid became the face of Valentine’s Day for his “love creating abilities.”

7. Who created Valentine’s Day cards? In the mid-1800s, Esther A. Howland, Mother of the American Valentine, created pre-made valentines. She lovingly made the cards, with real lace and ribbons, that were sentimental and sweet. The Valentine’s Day cards were an immediate hit on the commercial market. She made an estimated $100,000 annually, about $3 million today.

8. Valentine’s Day chocolate was a stroke of marketing genius. Richard Cadbury, the son of the manufacturer of Cadbury Chocolate, began packaging chocolates in beautiful heart-shaped boxes to drive up sales. Consequently, since the first Valentine’s Day box sold in the 1860s, the industry grew to some 36 million sold annually. Woman’s Day reports that caramels are the standout favorite, followed by chocolate-covered nuts. Today chocolates account for the lion’s share of Valentine’s Day candy sales—just about 75 percent.

9. Conversation hearts had humble beginnings. The candy hearts were first made by the machine initially invented to make medical lozenges. The Boston-based pharmacist who made the machine rebranded his company as New England Confectionery Company or Necco. By 1866, Necco was producing candy printed with messages that included “Married in white you have chosen right” and “How long shall I have to wait? Please be considerate.” Thirty-five years later, the iconic little candy hearts emblazoned with Valentine messages took on the familiar heart shape we know and love today. Every day, some 100,000 pounds candies are made. That adds up to a whopping eight billion conversation hearts annually.

10. The Victorians began the trend of giving flowers for Valentine’s Day. Red roses as a symbol of romance date back to ancient Rome. It was the favorite posy of Venus, the Roman goddess of love (and Cupid’s mom). But it wasn’t until the Victorian era that men really began giving the flower to women they were wooing.

11. Valentine’s Day is expensive. Statistics released by the National Retail Federation found that Americans spent more than $20 billion on the holiday in 2019, and were predicted to exceed that figure by $7.4 billion in 2020. Men were expected to spend $291 each, a significant chunk more than women, who were expected to spend $106. Much of that money goes toward jewelry. According to Good Housekeeping, more cash ($5.8 billion!) is spent on baubles than anything else on February 14th. That includes a whole lot of diamond rings—as many as six million couples get engaged on Valentine’s Day.

12. Ever wondered how Xs and Os came to mean kisses and hugs? Back in the Middle Ages people, who were mostly illiterate, signed documents with a simple X. It’s believed that this symbol represented Christ on the cross, which in turn meant faith and fidelity. As a show of devotion, people would then kiss the X, and thus, over the centuries, X evolved into a smooch. It’s not known how O came to signify a hug, but some suppose it was simply because, like X, it was also easy to write.

13. Valentine’s Day isn’t just for romance. Commemorate Valentine’s Day with your four-legged love. Almost 45 million American households bought Valentine’s Day gifts for their doggos and kitties in 2020. That adds up to an estimated $751.3 million worth of Valentine’s gifts for pets alone.

14.  Valentine’s Galentine’s Day is a holiday made famous (and made up) in a 2010 episode of television’s hit sitcom, Parks and Recreation. In the decade since the episode aired, spending on Valentine’s Day presents for buddies has skyrocketed, to $2.1 billion.

 

Valentine’s Day Trivial Facts Source: https://www.countryliving.com/life/entertainment/a35229444/valentines-day-facts/