Things You Might Not Know About the Day of Love

Love it or hate it, chances are you have a thing or two to learn about Valentine’s Day, Here is some unexpected information about the holiday.

1. How Valentine’s Day began.

Valentine’s Day probably originated as a combination of two Roman happenings. The first was Lupercalia, an ancient Roman festival celebrated each February 15, when exuberant men stripped naked and spanked young maidens, hoping to increase their fertility. The second happening was the life and death of St. Valentine. When the Roman Emperor Claudius II ordered young men to join his army rather than marry, St. Valentine performed secret marriages, and for his defiance was executed on February 14 in 278 AD.

2. If you are a single female and young, you’ll have no problem finding a date.

The ratio of single men to single women is 1.2 to 1 if you are in your 20s. But if you are over 65, women outnumber men 3 to 1.

3. True love is apparently not that hard to find.

Over two million marriages happen in the US each year, which is more than 6,000 a day! Many couples decide to marry on Valentine’s Day, but it isn’t the most popular day for weddings in Las Vegas, where dates with repeating numbers, such as 2/22, are even more popular. The most popular wedding date ever? Lucky number 07-07-07, a veritable jackpot of love.

4. Men like to give flowers on Valentine’s Day.

Men account for 73 percent of Valentine’s Day flower sales. What flower do they favor? The red rose, of course. Roses were the favored flower of Venus, the Goddess of Love. Mixed flowers are popular as well.

5. Chocolate is the candy of choice.

About eight billion candy hearts are made each year, enough to stretch from About 8 billion candy hearts are produced each year; that’s enough candy to stretch from Rome, Italy to Valentine, Arizona and back twenty times. But it’s chocolate that rules the day, and has since 1868, when the first Valentine’s Day box of chocolates was introduced by Richard Cadbury.

6, On Valentines day, you can wear your heart on your sleeve.

Where did that saying “wearing your heart on your sleeve” come from? Valentine’s Day, of course. In the Middle Ages, after drawing names to see who their Valentine would be, young men and women wore the name pinned to their sleeve for one week so that everyone could see who they had chosen.

7. Valentine’s Day is a time of endings and beginnings.

Fifty-three percent of women say they would end their relationship if they didn’t get something for Valentine’s Day. And 11,000 babies are conceived each Valentine’s Day.

8. Money can buy love.

The average U.S. consumer spent around $143 on Valentine’s Day gifts, meals and entertainment, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, about $19.6 billion in all. Most of that money is spent on spouses, and the rest goes to Valentine’s Day gifts for friends, children, coworkers and pets – yes, pets.

9. Pets!

An estimated 5.4 million households will spend almost $650 million on gifts for their cats and dogs on Valentine’s Day. Because who doesn’t love their pet!