Valentine’s Day 2016: 13 amazing facts about February 14

Think you know St Valentine’s Day? Think again. Here are 13 facts you probably didn’t know about the day of love.

1. Guess Who? Traditionally you won’t know who your Valentine’s Day card comes from, not surprising as the origins of St Valentine’s Day go back to early days of the Christian church and there are many different saints called Valentine.

2. Losing your head! Many people get overexcited and go overboard for Valentine’s Day, and legend has it St Valentine was the first man to lose his head on February 14. Of the two Sts Valentine whose feast day falls on February 14, little is known of their true stories, but legends have been built around them. They include Valentine carrying out illegal weddings for Roman soldiers, helping persecuted Christians and being imprisoned – where he healed the daughter of the jailer and sent her a letter signed Your Valentine before being beheaded.

3. Isn’t February a little cold for this sort of thing? The days of other saints named Valentine fall on June 12, July 6 and July 30 and some churches recognise St Valentine’s Day on these dates, while celebrations of love and friendship are held across the globe on a number of different days through the year.

4. Birds do it! The association of St Valentine’s Day with love didn’t begin until the middle ages, and the first recorded example is in a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer in which he describes the day as the first date when birds choose their mates.

5. Damned Yankees! The traditions associated with Valentine’s Day aren’t American, but British – starting on this side of the water and being exported to the US. The ancient traditons of Valentine’s Day from the UK had taken hold in the USA by 1850.

6. There’s somebody at the door! Odd traditions around St Valentine’s Day include, in Norfolk, a stranger knocking on a house’s back door and leaving sweets for children.

BBC

7. Greg, Vince or Tony? Seeing St Valentine’s Day as the day of love is a relatively modern invention. Previously the day of romantic love was celebrated on St Gregory’s Day, St Vincent’s Day or St Antony’s Day.

8. French letter! The earliest surviving Valentine dates back to the 15th century and was sent by the Duke of Orleans to his wife while he was a prisoner in the Tower of London.

9. Some day my prints will come! The first printed Valentine’s Day cards were produced towards the end of the 1700s and by the 19th centuries cards were being produced en masse in factories.

10. For love or money? Until the middle of the 20th century Valentine’s Day only saw cards and notes exchanged. Now 50 per cent of the UK population spends money on Valentine’s Day gifts, flowers and cards – a total of £1.3billion.

11. My precious! Jewellery was popularised as a gift for St Valentine’s Day in the 1980s thanks to advertising campaigns by the diamond industry.

12. Chinese whispers! In the Far East Valentine’s Day traditions have been exported from the West, but in countries such as Japan and Korea the day only sees women giving chocolate to men. It is thought this is because of a mistranslation of the original traditions. There is now another day, one month on, called White Day when men in those countries give gifts to women.

13. Love in a cold climate! In some countries, including Finland, Estonia and parts of South America St Valentine’s Day is as much about friendship as it is about romantic love. In other countries, such as parts of the Middle East, Valentine’s Day is banned by law and some have been arrested for celebrating it.