Valentine’s Day Fun Facts

Saint Valentine has a legacy that dates back centuries. Old traditions have morphed throughout the decades, but we still focus our attention on our loved one on this special day. No matter if you celebrate Valentine’s Day or not, its history and traditions offer some fun facts to share with friends.

Where did the phrase “wear your heart on your sleeve” come from?

Well, if you were a woman in the Middle Ages, you would wear the name of your Valentine pinned to your sleeve; hence the phrase.

What do people in the U.S. do 1 billion times in Feb?

Give someone a Valentine’s Card.

Want to dream of your future husband?

Girls of medieval times ate bizarre foods on St. Valentine’s Day to make them dream of their future husband. Who knew?

When was the first known Valentine’s Card created?

• 100 years ago?
• 200 years ago?
• 350 years ago?
• 600 years ago?

It was 600 years ago. The British Library possesses the oldest known valentine in the English language, a poem composed in 1477 by a woman named Margery Brews to her fickle fiancé.

What’s with lace used on V-Day cards?

The word “lace” comes from the Latin “laques,” meaning “to snare or net,” as in to catch a person’s heart.

When should you get engaged?

Well, 43% of millennials – some 220,000 — propose on Valentine’s Day each year.

Who created the first box of chocolates?

• Cadbury
• Hersey
• Dove
• Godiva

In 1822, John Cadbury opened a tea and coffee shop in Birmingham, England. He soon expanded into chocolate manufacturing, and in 1861 his son Richard greatly increased sales by packaging Cadbury chocolates in the world’s first heart shaped candy box for Valentine’s Day.

Iconic candy hearts started as medicine

Whether or not you like those pastel hearts with “Be Mine” on it, they were invented in 1847 by a pharmacist who made lozenges. He switched to making them into candy turning those funny little heart candies part of Valentine’s Day ever since.

110 million of what is sold for V-Day?

• Cards
• Roses
• Candy boxes
• Dinners at Duke’s

Roses, the majority of which are red.

So, what’s with Cupid’s bow and arrow?

This cute little character from Roman mythology, Cupid, is the son of Venus, the goddess of love. A flying baby with a bow and arrow is weird enough but his goal is to pierce hearts and cast a spell of love.

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