Now less than a week away, the annual holiday probably most divisive in opinion looms large. Whether you’re going to be spending this Valentines Day tucked up with a chick flick waiting for the day to pass or are actually celebrating with a loved one, here is HCX’s roundup of ten lesser known facts about February 14th.
1) Every Valentine’s Day, Verona, the Italian city setting of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet.
2) The average number of wedding proposals taking place on Valentine’s Day is around 220000, this figure comprises 10% of the total marriage proposals which take place in a year.
3) Whilst Saint Valentine is the patron saint of lovers and engaged couples, he is also the patron saint of epilepsy, plague, travelers, and bee keepers amongst other things.
4) The association the day has with the red rose comes from the fact that the flower was favourite of Venus, Roman goddess of love.
5) In the early modern period, English girls would often pin four bay leaves to her pillow and eat a hard-boiled egg, including the shell, on the eve of St. Valentine’s Day. Supposedly, if she dreamed of a boy that night, she would soon marry him.
6) If retail statistics are to be believed, about 3 per cent of pet owners will buy their pets Valentine’s Day presents.
7) In England it was not until 1537 when February 14th was officially declared as the holiday of St Valentine’s Day by King Henry VII.
8) Throughout history, there have been approximately eight St. Valentines. Three of them had special feast days in their honor. The two St. Valentines who most likely inspired Valentine’s Day are Valentine of Terni and Valentine of Rome, though some scholars have speculated they are actually one person.
9) Of the 189million flowers are sold in United States on Valentine’s Day, approximately 110 million are red.
10) Many believe the X symbol became synonymous with the kiss as early as medieval times. People who couldn’t write their names signed in front of a witness with an X. The X was then kissed to show their sincerity.