17 FACTS ABOUT ST. VALENTINE'S DAY

Valentine is just around the corner, so many things pop up in our minds when we hear the word 'VALENTINE'. Here are 17 things you will need to know about the day & events that do come up every February 14th.

1.        Speaking of St Valentines, did you know that there were two of them?  one Saint Valentine was in love with love , he  he loved the institution of marriage a great deal, apparently and i quote he "disobeyed the Roman Emperor of the time and married couples in secret". The next Saint Valentine was "a lover of children but, was imprisoned when he would not honor other gods. The children missed him and wrote messages of affection to him. They threw their notes through the bars of his cell. This may have been the beginning of exchanging messages.

He was executed on February 14, 269 A.D. Pope Gelasius in 496 A.D. named February 14th, Valentine's Day, after him."

2.        Marriage .. the union of two people in love or arranged , depending of what part of the world you are in..
Did you know that a lot of people actually feel lonely, insecure, depressed, or unwanted on Valentine’s Day, while a lot of people will never admit it, at least  ten young adults out of a sample count of a thousand people actually admitted to this.

3.        Speaking of marriage .. hmmm a secret poll conducted in the late 1990's showed that most men who got married on Saint Valentine's day tied the knot simply because the date is one thats hard to forget,  years later, another poll showed that almost half of them actually forgot... weird.

4.        Girls of medieval times ate bizarre foods on St. Valentine's Day to make them dream of their future spouse.

5.        In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who would be their Valentine. They would wear this name pinned onto their sleeves for one week for everyone to see. This was the origin of the expression "to wear your heart on your sleeve."

6. In 1537, England's King Henry VII officially declared Feb. 14 the holiday of St. Valentine's Day.

7.     Physicians of the 1800s commonly advised their patients to eat chocolate to calm their pining for lost love.

8.     Richard Cadbury produced the first box of chocolates for Valentine's Day in the late 1800s.

9.     More than 35 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate will be sold for Valentine's Day.

10. 73 percent of people who buy flowers for Valentine's Day are men, while only 27 percent are women

11.     Over 50 percent of all Valentine's Day cards are purchased in the six days prior to the holiday, making Valentine's Day a procrastinator's delight.

12.The red rose was the favorite flower of Venus, the Roman goddess of love.

13.Red roses are considered the flower of love because the color red stands for strong romantic feelings.

14.Women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentine’s day gifts

15.Teachers will receive the most Valentine's Day cards, followed by children, mothers, wives, sweethearts and pets.

16.220,000 is the average number of wedding proposals on Valentine's Day each year.

17.Every Valentine's Day, the Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare's lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet.