February 14th is celebrated as the day of love, popularly known as Valentine's Day all over the world and it is on this day that loved ones exchange wishes, gifts, red roses as well as chocolates among themselves as a sigh of their love and companionship.
As the history of Valentine's Day goes, on this very day late in the 3rd Century A.D., St. Valentine was martyred and since then, this day has been celebrated by lovers as the Day of Love.
It is believed that St. Valentine was found binding soldiers, who were forbidden to marry, in holy matrimony with their chosen mates because of which he was first imprisoned and then beheaded. It is also believed that the last letter that he wrote was signed by him as ‘Your Valentine’ from where the popular custom came into being.
Also, during the 18th century, when ‘courtly love’ was favoured by the masses, Geoffrey Chaucer in his poem ‘Parliament of Foules’ placed his poetic characters in such fictitious historical contexts that might come out and be taken as real linking courtly love to St. Valentine and it is since then that Valentine’s Day has been a day of the celebration of love.
1. Facts About Valentine's Day
Flowers being the choice of gift for most valentines on the Lover's Day, for florists it is also the number one day of holiday with approximately 189 million stems of roses being sold on this day alone in the US, 90% of which comes from Ecuador and Colombia.
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2. The Cost Of Love On Valentine's Day
On an average, on Valentine’s Day, American men spend approximately $168.74 while women have been known to spend almost half of that at $85.46. Also, Americans have been found to purchase almost 58 Million pounds of chocolate. Also somewhere around 220 thousand marriage proposals are made on this day.
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3. The Power Of Love And Money
Most of us are not even sure what we would like to gift our valentines on the occasion of Valentine's Day. But it is actually not that hard. You could gift them a greeting card stating your feelings or you could also gift them flowers that speak aloud your true feelings for them. You could also think about taking them out for dinner for the occasion.
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4. If Money Could Buy Love
Valentine's Day is all about showing your love for your loved ones and most of us prefer doing so with the help of gifts, be it of flowers or of chocolates or anything else. Almost 45% of the Americans would be opting to buy a gift worth anything between $1 and $45 while approximately 28% would not be spending anything at all.
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5. Thoughts On Valentine's Day
As the survey done by Essential Travel shows, Valentine's Day is actually more important to men than it is to women. 20% of the men believe that it is important to show their partners and loved ones how much they are cared while 22% of the women do not really find it important but yet expect something special to be done by their partners.
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6. Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day is that one day when people get the opportunity to express their most sincere feelings towards their loved ones and it is actually a moment of joy for their partners when the declaration of love is made on this particular day. 695 of the people prefer talking their loved ones out for dinner while 44% of them prefer gifting am expensive perfume.
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7. Valentine's Day By The Numbers
In the United States almost 62% of the couples celebrate this holiday with quite a lot of enthusiasm with almost 448 million dollars being spent on candy in the first week of February itself. A staggering 38 Million heart shaped boxes are sold for the celebration of the event in US alone.
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8. The Growing Impact of Social Media On Relationships
Social media sites are increasingly becoming one of the main mediums to express one's personal feeling, be it love or otherwise. It has been found that 60% of the Facebook users declare their relationship statuses on Facebook as a mark of their relationship solidarity. But that also goes to show that there are almost 54 Million single men in the US with more that 5.5 million of them using dating sites.
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9. Going Mobile On Valentine's Day
Some of you, this Valentine's Day would prefer taking you date out for dinner but then do you have any idea whether reservations will be available or not and if yes, then where? Well, it has been found that most people use their mobile phone to do their searches on restaurant and also to make the necessary reservations. Also mobile phones are being increasingly used for other Valentine's Day related shopping and browsing as well.
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10. Top Valentine's Day Gifts
Every girl expects something or the other from their perfect man on Valentine's Day and it is no surprise that most of the men stand up to this expectations of their ladies. The top most gift that girls have been found to receive on Valentine's Day in UK is the gift of lingerie while the French prefer showering their ladies with flowers.
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11. The Relationship Between Valentine's Day And The Gift You Receive
Most of us, are expecting to be showered in gifts by our better halves on Valentine's Day but have you even stopped to think about the hidden meaning behind the gift at all? It is thought that the gift of a chocolate heart means that he is still in middle school and needs to grow up fast while the gift of perfume means that he want you to be his girl but is afraid of asking you.
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12. Where The Romance Is
According to a survey done by Interflora in regards to Valentine's Day, the people of Scotland are the most romantic followed closely by London. they also found out that 14% of the men forget about Valentine's Day while a staggering 71% plan to celebrate the day with great enthusiasm.
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13. Valentine's Day In The UK
Southwest is the home to the biggest romantics in the United Kingdom with more than 71% of them planning on celebrating Valentine's Day. Bristol has been found to have the biggest Valentine's Day spenders with them spending almost £.45. 21 while Hull being inhabited by the least romantics with them spending only £.3.70 on gifts for their lovers.
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14. Expenditure On Valentine's Day
This year, a survey showed that Americans, after a few years of recession, are now getting ready to splurge on Valentine's Day. 58.1% of the adults say that they will be celebrating the occasion while 41.9% of them do not think they will be doing so. Men have been known to spend twice as much as women for Valentine's Day.
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15. Superstitions On Valentine's Day
For centuries, it has been believed that certain things speak or signify the future of your love life on being sighted. For example, it is believed that if you sight a goldfinch bird on the morning of Valentine’s Day you are going to marry a millionaire but if you see a squirrel, you are destined to marry a cheapskate.
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