February - oh, the month of love. What do you think of? Hearts? Roses? Chocolate? Everybody has bought into this commercialized holiday but do we even know where it came from? Why do we spend money (and hopefully time) on this day to show the ones we love, that we, well, love them?
One legend exists that Valentine was a Catholic priest who served in ancient Roman times. When Emperor Claudius declared that single men where not able to marry because they made better soldiers than husbands, Valentine continued to marry these young men in secret. Valentine was sentenced to death when the emperor realized what he was doing. Not really the happy ending we all hope for, huh?
The holiday is celebrated in the US, Canada, the UK, Mexico and Australia to name a few. Americans began exchanging and celebrating in the 1700's. In 1840 the first commercialized valentine card (with lace and all) was sold.
It is also the second largest day for card giving, Christmas ranks first. I would like to note that 85% of the card purchasers are women. Women? Oh wait, men purchase 73% of the flowers. So, it pretty much equals out.
Interesting Valentine Facts:
- Most cards are purchased in the week of Valentine's making it a Procrastinator's holiday.
- 220,000 is the average number of wedding proposals on Valentine's Day each year. (I wonder how many babies are born 9 months later)
- About 3 percent of pet owners will give Valentine's Day gifts to their pets.
- Teachers will receive the most Valentine's Day cards, followed by children, mothers, wives, sweethearts and pets.
- AND, more than 35 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate will be sold for Valentine's Day.
