Valentine’s Day fun
facts
Here are a bunch of Valentine’s Day fun facts to get you ready for
the big day. Even if you don’t have a special someone to share the day
with, you can still enjoy learning some interesting facts. All holidays
have their oddities. These strange facts about Valentine’s Day will make
you either chuckle or scratch your head.
Chocolaty fun facts
 Chocolate wasn’t always synonymous with Valentine’s Day. The first
box of chocolates specifically designed for Valentine’s Day was created
by Richard Cadbury in the 1880s. However, throughout the 19th century,
doctors told lovesick patients that they should eat chocolate to help
mend their broken hearts. Additionally, chocolate has a long history as
an aphrodisiac. Casanova ate chocolate with his lovers, as did Madame
DuBarry, courtesan and mistress to Louis XV.
Recent research has found a reason for this: chocolate contains a
compound known as phenylethylamine, the same chemical that the brain
produces when you fall in love. You’d need to eat more chocolate than
anyone could possibly consume to get that “in love” feeling from it,
however. In modern times, people spend over a billion dollars on
chocolate for Valentine’s Day.
More than 36 million heart shaped boxes of chocolate are sold each
Valentine’s Day. A company called Necco – based in the US – mass
produces conversation hearts for every Valentines. Necco makes about
eight billion of the chalky tasting, multi-coloured conversation hearts
each year, which is enough to stretch from Italy to Arizona and back 20
times. If you don’t get to eat your candy hearts this year, they’ll
still be edible next Valentine’s Day. The hearts have a shelf life of
five years.
 Roses and flowers
Red roses are the most popular Valentine’s Day flower, because they
symbolize love and romance. Even though the red rose available today
wasn’t bred until the 1800s, the rose was closely connected to the
goddess Aphrodite in ancient Greek myth. Red roses were the flowers of
choice for weddings across many cultures throughout history.
Most flowers purchased for Valentine’s Day are purchased by men.
Nearly 200 million roses are sent each Valentine’s Day.
Valentine’s cards
Most people celebrate Valentine’s Day by sending cards to their
friends and lovers. Some people think of Valentine’s Day as a holiday
invented by the greeting card companies. Before the 19th century,
Valentines were handwritten love notes. In the 1800s, sending Valentines
to friends was a popular trend in Britain. Mass-produced cards were
introduced in 1847. Most of these cards are purchased by women, and most
are received by teachers and children.
 Greeting card company Hallmark has a special Valentine’s Day research
staff. The staff is responsible for looking at past Valentine’s Day
sales, interviewing consumers and conducting focus groups in order to
come up with the few thousand cards in their Valentine’s Day collection.
Over 150 million Valentine’s cards are sent yearly.
A card for a Capulet - Even though she was not a real person, and
even though she would have died 500 years ago had she existed, Juliet,
from William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, still has nearly 1,000
cards sent to her hometown of Verona each Valentine’s Day.
Weirder still is that 3% of pet owners purchase Valentine’s gifts for
their furry friends, and 15% of women send themselves flowers on
Valentine’s Day. |
