10 Interesting Facts About Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s day is a special day that comes around once in every 365 days (or 366 days as in the case of leap years) and is celebrated across the globe. This day holds a lot of different meanings to it, but there are quite a number of fun facts about Valentine’s day that would interest you.

Now while some will say it is a day set aside to celebrate love, express love for one’s significant other, show appreciation to friends and even family via flowers, chocolates, candies and exchange of other gifts and pleasant wishes; for seemingly inexplicable reasons, some others may choose not to celebrate this day. But whatever the case may be, love will always be worth celebrating.

History of Valentine's Day

Come to think of it – how did this special celebration come into existence? And for a celebration that has made its way across the globe, how did it gain popularity? Was it originally about feelings and love? We’ll find out soon. Before we look into the fun facts of Valentine’s day, here’s a brief history of the celebration.

The emergence of the much celebrated Valentine’s day also called “St. Valentines day” can be dated back to 270 AD. History holds in account that the day is shrouded in some form of mystery that is caught in between a Christian story and an ancient Roman tradition “Lupercalia”.

One legend holds that Valentines day was formally the Lupercalia celebration, a fertility festival dedicated to the then Roman god of agriculture. But for the Catholic church, their legend holds that during the reign of Roman Emperor Claudius II, he forbade marriages because he was convinced that marriage was a distraction and that single men made better soldiers.

Valentine Photo by MET Museum. Photo Credit: Wikimedia

During this time there was a certain Bishop named Saint Valentine who believed in love and realizing how unjust such a decree was, disregarded the Emperor’s directive. He secretly wedded young couples who were in love and at the same time provided succor to persecuted Christians. But when his actions were discovered, he was imprisoned for treason.

It was also said that while in jail Saint Valentine restored the sight of his jailer’s blind daughter and further fell in love with her. And before his execution, wrote a letter to her which was signed ‘From your Valentine’. He was also said to have been executed on the 14th of February which is the reason why the day was set aside to celebrate Valentine’s day every year.

Here are a couple other interesting facts about this special romantic day that has come to be dedicated to lovers:

1. Over $1 billion worth of chocolate is sold on this day in the U.S

Yeah you read that right, not million but billion. Where can you find love on February 14th if not in a box of chocolate (lol). It is said that there is an unusual spike in the demand of chocolates on this special day, so much so that over 36 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate are sold each year, amongst other types. These heart-shaped chocolate boxes were first introduced in 1868 and they've been a Valentine friendly product since then.

2. Flowers are the most popular gifts given on Valentine’s Day

If you do celebrate valentines day, chances are you have received or given out at least one flower in your life. So yes, you are among the crowd that has made this gift become the most populous. In the U.S, $3.3 billion is estimated to be spent on flowers yearly on valentines day, and “Red roses” are the most likely flower to be purchased – it just has to be red roses, they are the choicest thing!

3. On average, men spend double the amount of money that women spend on gifts on Valentine’s day – quite true.

Men spend double the amount of money that women spend on gifts on Valentine’s day

An average man spends $150 while a woman is likely to spend just $70. It is said that approximately only 27 percent of flowers sold on this day are bought by women. And a whopping 73 percent are bought by men – Does that mean that men are better lovers? Certainly not! – I’m pretty sure women spend more time making beautiful valentine dinners.

4. Following Christmas, Valentine’s day is the second most popular day for sending cards in the year.

On this day, 1 billion cards are exchanged yearly in the U.S alone – if we’re going to consider the world at large then the number of cards sent out will just be innumerable. And among the cards sent out, teachers receive the most Valentine’s cards annually.

5. A lot of pet owners hand in a gift to their pet and give them special treatments on this day

Think its only humans that receive love? Think again - Pets are not left out on the celebration as some pet owners buy their pets a gift on this day. In the U.S a lot of pet owners hand in a gift to their pet and give them special treatments on this day.

6. 15 percent of women in the U.S. send themselves flowers on this day. So why feel sad when you can show yourself some love!

15 percent of women in the U.S. send themselves flowers on this day. So why feel sad when you can show yourself some love!

7. There is an almost 20 to 30 percent increase in the sales of condoms on Valentine’s day. And yes, you might want to ask why? Well you wont get the reason here.

8. 'Lace' is the most commonly used decoration on Valentine’s day.

There is a significant reason why Lace finds its way into the picture, this is because LACE comes from Latin 'laques' meaning to snare or net – as in to catch a persons heart.

9. 85% of cards sold on Valentine’s day are bought by women

Well may be women don’t just buy chocolates or flowers as they are on the receiving end, they sure do buy all the cards. Approximately 85% of cards sold on Valentine’s day are bought by women.

10. Shakespeare’s book receives approximately 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet on Valentine’s day.

The Italian city of Verona, which is home to Romeo and Juliet the young lovers in Shakespeare’s book receives approximately 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet on Valentine’s day.

Valentines day is worth celebrating if you believe in love. Pretty sure you didn’t know about some of these interesting facts about valentines day enlisted above – now you are aware, go on and celebrate love!