Valentine’s Day Nostalgia

Valentine’s Day is upon us next Tuesday, February 14! Here at Treasure Chest, we’d like to take a trip down memory lane with some interesting facts about Valentine’s Day past, and present. 

 “One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first "valentine" greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl--possibly his jailor's daughter--who visited him during his confinement [During the middle ages, it was common for priests to marry]. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter signed "From your Valentine," an expression that is still in use today.” (History Channel ,online).

“We can thank the Pilgrims -- of all people -- for the Valentine's Day tradition of giving gifts of chocolate and candy, says the National Confectioners Association. Seems that Miles Standish et al. sent their betrothed gifts of sugar wafers, sweetmeats, marzipans and sugarplums, which at that time were valuable because sugar was scarce. As the custom grew, American colonists made candy at home with love notes scratched on the surface. By the middle of the 19th century, professional candy makers were making heart-shaped flavored sugar lozenges imprinted with love notes. Red and white confections became popular because red represented the "passion" and white the "purity" of love. By the turn of the century, heart-shaped boxes of chocolates began to appear in confectioners' shops.” (The Buffalo News, 1997).

Fun Valentine’s Day Facts:

• Women purchase approximately 85% of all Valentines.
• Valentine’s Day first became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. Birds are a very common theme among Valentine’s Day lore: “For this was on St. Valentine's Day, When every fowl cometh there to choose his mate.” (The Parliament of Fowls, Chaucer).
• Valentine’s Day is mentioned in song by the deranged, suicidal lover Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1602):

To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,

All in the morning betime,

And I a maid at your window,

To be your Valentine.

Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes,

And dupp'd the chamber-door;

Let in the maid, that out a maid

Never departed more.

—William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5

• Valentine’s Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia.
• Valentine’s Day is the second-most popular card-sending holiday (after Christmas).
• In Finland Valentine's Day is called Ystävänpäivä which translates into "Friend's day". As the name indicates, this day is more about remembering all your friends, not only your loved ones.
• California produces 60% of roses sold in America, and the rest are imported from South America. Approximately 110 million roses will be sold in the U.S. within three days.
• To be awoken by a kiss on Valentine’s Day is supposed to bring good luck all year.  
• On Valentine’s Day 2000, the producer of Viagra founded a national impotence day in Great Britain.
• Valentine’s Day candy hearts have a shelf life of five years. Don’t throw them away!
• Each year, 300,000 letters go through Loveland, Colorado to receive a special heart-shaped stamp.
• More home pregnancy tests are sold in March than any other month.
• Hallmark produced its first Valentine in 1913 – proving that this was not originally a ‘Hallmark Holiday!’
• Verona, Italy receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet each year on V-Day.
• In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week; hence the phrase ‘wearing your heart on your sleeve.’

Like The Beatles sing...All you need is love!