Valentine's Day has become firmly entrenched in our traditions, with obligatory gifts of roses, chocolates, romantic dinners, and rituals beginning in mid-February. In the meantime, here are nine 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 14th, traditions, strange facts, and quirky deviations is expanding. Whether you're part of a couple or 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 partner over a candlelit dinner.
1. "Wearing your heart on your sleeve" in the Middle Ages
There was a Roman festival held in honor of Juno, queen of the Roman gods and goddesses. Men drew names to determine who their potential lover would be. These men then wore 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, 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
Seeing more breakups and divorces than lasting love and successful marriages 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. This is a marriage that lasts a lifetime.
However, there is a couple in the UK who were married for 88 years, but the marriage between the 108-year-old and his 101-year-old wife was never officially registered. But that's just a detail.
4. Pets can be your friends
There are very few things we can truly say we 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 United States spent $703 million on gifts for their pets. Couples spend a similar amount on each other—a total of $18.9 billion—on Valentine's Day.
5. Record-breaking kisses with an entry in the Book of Records
Here's a fun fact: kissing increases a person's heart rate to at least 110 beats per minute. Well, people in the Philippines come together to get their hearts pumping by locking lips at a specific event called Lovapalooza.
More than 5,300 couples attempted to kiss back in 2004. This was intended to break the previous Guinness World Record of 4,445 couples held by Chile. Unfortunately, this 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 City to reclaim the record for the Philippines in 2007.
6. Getting revenge on your exes on Valentine's Day was banned by authorities.
In France, the traditional Valentine's Day was called "Drawing for Love.".
Single people of all ages would emerge from houses located opposite each other and find a partner. If a man didn't like his woman, he could leave her and find someone else.
Women who were left single would build a large bonfire and ceremoniously burn photographs of the men who had jilted them. Of course, feelings (whether good or bad) can easily spiral out of control, and when things did (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's 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 and a shepherd. The weaver was truly a celestial being, and the shepherd a mere mortal. They fell in love and had two children before being 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 seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the Chinese calendar, reuniting the two lovers and their children for a brief but special moment. Today, the festival is also known as the Magpie Festival and 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 12 gifts to be prepared for the year. Here's a short list of what's 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 14th, is primarily aimed at single people. Bachelors and bachelorettes gather together and eat Jajangmyeon, noodles served with black bean sauce (as pictured below).
They also dress in black, wear black accessories, and even black nail polish. However, it's not all gloom. Think of 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 also Singles' Day. But instead, we'll talk about singles in China. Celebrated on November 11th, Singles' Day is best known for online shopping and 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 and online shopping, waiting for prices to drop. It's the Chinese version of Black Friday sales.
It's the biggest sale ever, surpassing even Black Friday. In 2012, China spent $3 billion on Singles' Day; by 2013, that figure 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?