Valentine’s Day: 7 Interesting Things You Didn’t Know About The Holiday
Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching. Are you ready? Do you even celebrate Valentine’s Day? If you don’t, you aren’t alone. Did you know that 30% of adults don’t even celebrate the Day of Love? Does this number surprise you? It did me!
I don’t know about you, but I love learning quirky, unusual and interesting facts about the different holidays that we celebrate. That’s why I decided to share with you these 7 interesting things you didn’t know about Valentine’s Day, so we can all know just a little bit more about this holiday that couples love to celebrate so much.
First of all, can I just say that I love learning stuff like this about holidays because it really opens my eyes to the things that we celebrate and why. Plus, there is a reason that you see fun facts often on restaurant menus in waiting rooms across the world. Fun facts are fun to learn and because they are so much fun, the info is easy to retain! These 7 interesting things you didn’t know about Valentine’s Day might just get you excited to start learning some fun facts about other holidays!
7 Interesting Things You Didn’t Know About Valentine’s Day
Rome Started it All
It all began with Rome. There are two widely believed theories about the origin of Valentine’s Day. Both of these theories began in Rome.
The first theory is that there was a festival held in ancient Roman times, called Lupercalia, where men would strip naked and would then spank young maidens in an effort to boost their fertility (this one is written in black and white on History.com folks, I’m not making this up).
The second theory about the beginnings of Valentine’s Day is that the Roman Emperor Claudius II forbade his soldiers from marrying, claiming that they made better soldiers when they were single. St. Valentine, in the spirit of love, defied the Emperor and performed secret marriages. According to the theory, St. Valentine was executed for his defiance. The date of his execution was Feb. 14th.
Greeting Cards are Big Business for Valentine’s Day
In the United States alone, there are nearly 150 million greeting cards sold during the Valentine’s Day rush. That is a lot of greeting cards!
Valentines Have Been Given for 600 years
Children in classrooms around the nation celebrate Valentine’s Day by handing out Valentines to their classmates. This all began because back in the early 1400s, Charles Duke of Orleans was imprisoned and wrote his wife a poem while locked up. This is the oldest recorded Valentine in history.
The First Manufacturer of Valentines was a Woman
Now this is the kind of fun fact that I love to read! The so called “Mother of the American Valentine,” Esther Howland, was the first person to commercialize and manufacture Valentines. The artistry and sentiment of her designs were so well received that she decided to start creating them for others and an empire was born. In 1850 she made $100,000 per year, which is the equivalent of $3 million today.
This is one of those fun facts that shocked and pleased me! I love reading stuff about pioneers like this. Girl power!
Wearing Your Heart on Your Sleeve is a Literal Phrase
We may think of the saying “wearing your heart on your sleeve” as just a way of saying that we are open with our feelings, but this saying originated by a tradition that was a literal interpretation of that saying. During the Middle Ages, young people would draw names to determine who their Valentine would be. This name was then pinned to their sleeve for several days as a declaration of their true feelings.
If only it were as easy as picking a name out of a hat, right?
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— Annemarie @ TMT (@touristmtravel) January 23, 2020
Candy Hearts Began as Something Quite Different
In 1847 a machine was invented by Boston pharmacist Oliver Chase. This invention simplified the process of making medicinal lozenges. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Chase changed his focus to using his machine to create candy, specifically Necco wafers.
Roughly 15 years later, Mr. Chase’s brother created a process that would allow words to be pressed into the wafers which, of course, gave us the famous Conversation Hearts. (Although the heart shape would come much later, 1902 to be exact.)
Was anyone else shocked to learn that these candies have been around for so long?
Valentine’s Day is Third in Terms of Money Spent
Americans spend A LOT of money on proclaiming their love for one another. In the United States alone, over 18 billion dollars is spent yearly on Valentine’s Day. Only Christmas and Mother’s Day surpassed Valentine’s day in spending.
Were you surprised to learn any of these 7 interesting things you didn’t know about Valentine’s Day? Are there any interesting things, quirky trivia or fun facts about Valentine’s Day that I didn’t include here that you would like to share? I would love to hear them!
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