Valentine's Day: From Saints to Cards
Last Modified: 12/02/2019
Valentine's Day has been reinvented over and over, but one thing stays the same: it's all about giving tokens.
- 1Celebrated on February 14th,...
- 2...Valentine's Day is a holiday where lovers traditionally express their feelings for each other.
- 3Symbols of modern Valentine's Day include the heart shape and Cupid.
- 4The holiday is named for two martyred Christian saints named Valentine,...
- 5...but only became connected with romantic love in the middle ages with the help of poet Geoffrey Chaucer.
- 6Today, giving chocolate, jewelry or presenting one's love with flowers are all customary gifts for Valentine's Day.
- 7However, the most common present is the exchange of love notes known as Valentines.
- 8Over time, Valentine's Day has been reinvented over and over.
- 9It was roughly in the 1940s when the current card giving tradition began.
- 10Before that time, Valentines were mainly handwritten love notes,...
- 11...as opposed to the mass-produced greeting cards of today.
- 12In the second half of the 20th century,...
- 13...the gift giving trend extended to presents of all kind.
- 14And finally, in the 1980s, the diamond industry started promoting jewelry as an appropriate love token.
- 15Today, it is estimated that approximately one billion Valentine's Day cards are sent worldwide each year,...
- 16...making this day the second largest card sending holiday after Christmas.
- 1785% of those cards are sent by women.
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