1. St. Valentine was a Roman priest executed on February 14th, 270 A.D., for disobeying an imperial edict forbidding marriage ceremonies.
2. February 14th was also the day Romans honored Juno, goddess of marriage.
3. Medieval Europeans believed birds mated on February 14th.
4. 73% of U.S. men buy flowers on Valentines Day.
5. 15% of U.S. women send themselves flowers on Valentines Day.
6. According to superstition, if a woman sees a robin on Valentines Day, she’ll marry a sailor; if she sees a sparrow, she’ll marry a poor man and be happy; and if she sees a goldfinch, she’ll marry a millionaire and be very happy.
7. Queen Victoria sent over 2,500 Valentines during her reign.
8. The Welsh used to give each other wooden spoons on February 14th.
9. During the nineteenth century, romantic Brits would simply pick the first person they saw on February 14th to be their Valentine.
10. Finns celebrate Valentines Day by being nice to their friends.
7 OTHER EXCITING EVENTS THAT TOOK PLACE ON FEBRUARY 14th
1. Oregon became the 33rd state.
2. Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray applied for patent rights to the telephone.
3. The Department of Commerce and Labor was established.
4. The United Parcel Service was founded.
5. Thomas Watson formed IBM.
6. Al Capone wiped out his rivals in The Valentines Day Massacre.
7. The Ayatollah Khomeini declared his feelings for Salman Rushdie by calling on Moslems around the world to kill him on sight.
Valentine’s Day originated from St. Valentine, a Roman man who was martyred for refusing to give up Christianity.
As the story goes, Saint Valentine served as a priest in Rome during the days of Emperor Claudius II, a ruler who felt the reason he was having a hard time recruiting soldiers for his army was because many Roman men did not want to leave their loved ones. As a result, Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome.
During this time, Saint Valentine and Saint Marius secretly married couples. Once Emperor Claudius II found out about these acts, he sentenced Saint Valentine to death. Saint Valentine suffered martyrdom on the 14th day of February, 269 A.D. In 496 A.D. Pope Gelasius set aside February 14 to honor St. Valentine.
For centuries, February has been recognized in the Western world as the month to celebrate romance. Each February, gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine.
As time evolved, February 14th became the date for exchanging love messages, while St. Valentine became the patron saint of lovers. On this date, people sent poems and gifts to others as a sign of love. Others gathered socially to celebrate the day.
In the U.S., Esther Howland is known to be the first person to send valentine cards.
Hundreds of years ago in England, many children dressed up as adults on Valentine’s 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. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.
