Valentine's Day has become firmly established in our traditions, and the obligatory gifts of roses, chocolates, romantic dinners and rituals begin in mid-February. In the meantime, you can write about 9 interesting things you didn't know about Valentine's Day.
The bad news is that this article isn't about the usual facts, like how Valentine's Day got its name or what the color or number of roses in a bouquet symbolize. The good news is that the scope of love, February 14, traditions, weird facts, and quirky deviations is expanding. Whether you're one half of a couple or if you're single, there's actually quite a bit about love that most of us don't know.
Here are 9 interesting facts about Valentine's Day that you can share with your significant other over a candlelit dinner.
1. "Wearing your heart on your sleeve" in the Middle Ages
There was a Roman festival that was held in honor of Juno, the queen of the Roman gods and goddesses. Men would draw names to determine who their potential lover would be. These men would then wear the name on their sleeve for the rest of the festival.
2. Chocolates are synonymous with Valentine's Day gifts because of Cadbury
Chocolate and Valentine's Day go together like peanut butter and jelly. It's an image many of us are accustomed to seeing, but where does this tradition come from?
Richard Cadbury of the Cadbury chocolate family is responsible for the very first box of Valentine's Day chocolates. In 1868, he gave the chocolates to his beloved in a heart-shaped box. Apparently, he also made the boxes more unique by using his own paintings to decorate the packaging.
3. Longest marriage - 8.5 decades
If you encounter more breakups and divorces than everlasting love and successful marriages, it might lift your spirits. The official world record for the longest marriage for a living couple belongs to Herbert and Zelmira Fisher, who were married for a total of 86 years and 290 days before Mr. Fisher passed away. Talk about a marriage that lasts a lifetime.
However, there is a couple in the UK who have been married for 88 years, but the marriage between the 108-year-old and his 101-year-old wife is not officially registered. But these are details.
4. Pets can be your friends
There are very few things we can say we truly love. For most of us, pets aren't just pets, they're family. So, it's a surprising fact that on Valentine's Day 2015, pet owners in the U.S. spent $703 million on gifts for their pets. Couples spend between them — $18.9 billion — on Valentine's Day.
5. Record-breaking kisses with an entry in the Book of Records
Here's a fun little fact: Kissing increases a person's heart rate to at least 110 beats per minute. Well, people in the Philippines have come together to get their hearts pounding by locking lips in a kiss at a specific event called Lovapalooza.
More than 5,300 couples came together in an attempt at a kiss back in 2004. This was set to break the previous Guinness World Record of 4,445 couples held by Chile. Unfortunately, that record was surpassed by a similar attempt in Hungary, where 5,875 couples locked lips on the Elizabeth Bridge in Budapest in 2005. Not to be outdone, 6,124 couples locked lips in Pasay to reclaim the record for the Filipinos in 2007.
6. Revenge on your ex on Valentine's Day has been banned by authorities
In France, the traditional Valentine's Day was called "Drawing for Love".
Single people of different ages would come out of houses located opposite each other and find a partner. If a man didn't like his woman, then he could leave her and communicate with someone else.
Women who were left single would build a large bonfire and ceremonially burn photographs of the men who had dumped them. Of course, feelings can easily get out of control (whether good or bad), and when things got out of control (as expected), the custom was eventually banned by the French government.
7. The Chinese have an alternative Valentine's Day dedicated to lost love.
It is better to have loved and lost than to never know love at all. The Qixi Festival is a celebration of love based on the love story between a weaver girl and a shepherd. The weaver girl was indeed a celestial being, and the shepherd, a mere mortal. They fell in love and had two children before they were forced to part ways, separated by a river for the rest of their lives.
The magpies took pity on them and formed a bridge for them every year on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month of the Chinese calendar, reuniting the two lovers and their children for a short but special moment. Today, the festival is also known as the Magpie Festival, as well as Valentine's Day. It has inspired similar celebrations in Japan, Korea and Vietnam.
8. South Korea celebrates romantic holidays every month
In South Korea, the 14th of each month marks a romantic holiday. These are the 12 gifts that need to be prepared in a year. Here is a short list of what is celebrated each month: Candle Day, Valentine's Day, White Day, Black Day, Rose Day, Kiss Day, Silver Day, Green Day, Music Day, Wine Day, Film Day, and Hyug Day.
Black Day, celebrated on April 14, is one that is aimed primarily at single people. Bachelors and bachelorettes gather together and eat Jajangmyeon, noodles served with black bean sauce (as pictured below).
They also wear black, black accessories, and black nail polish. However, it's not all gloomy. If you imagine it as an annual ritual of support, people gather in groups, discuss their loneliness, eat, and some find partners.
9. Single people celebrate their day in China
In case you didn't know, Valentine's Day is Singles Day. But instead, we're going to talk about the singles of China. Celebrated on November 11, Singles Day is best known for online shopping, for cheating because you don't have a partner to buy you roses.
No, instead of wallowing in self-pity, singles (and even those in relationships) are sitting at their computers in online stores and waiting for prices to drop. The Chinese version of Black Friday sales.
It’s the biggest sale ever, even surpassing Black Friday. In 2012, China spent $3 billion on Singles Day; by 2013, that had grown to $5.75 billion. In 2014, China spent $9 billion on online shopping deals — all within 24 hours. Who needs love when you can shop from home?
