Whether you celebrate Valentine’s Day or Singles Awareness Day, here are some fun conversation starters that will make you look like a genius this February 14th.
History.com shares:
- Roman Emperor Claudius II believed single men would make better warriors, so he outlawed men to marry during wartime. Bishop Valentine continued to marry couples in secret, and was jailed and executed after this was discovered. In jail, the bishop wrote what may be the very first valentine to his jailer’s daughter, who visited him, signed “from your Valentine.” Valentine may also have been executed for helping Christians escape torture in Roman prisons before he was jailed.
- Valentine’s Day may have originated from a pagan fertility festival called Lupercalia. History.com writes, “To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at a sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. They would then strip the goat’s hide into strips, dip them into the sacrificial blood and take to the streets, gently slapping both women and crop fields with the goat hide. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed the touch of the hides because it was believed to make them more fertile in the coming year.”
- Many Europeans in the Middle Ages believed February 14th should definitely be a day for romance, since it was also the start of birds’ mating season.
According to Kids Play and Create:
- Red is the color of blood and it was once believed that the heart is where the feeling of love originates.
- During the Middle Ages, men and women would draw names from a bowl to determine their Valentine, and then wear those names on their sleeves for a week, thus coining the phrase “wearing your heart on your sleeve.”
- The oldest known valentine dates back to the 1400’s and is on display in London at the British Museum.
- Every year, thousands of valentines addressed to Juliet are sent to Verona, Italy, the home of Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet.’
- Cupid, typically displayed as a chubby cherub in cartoons, is the Roman god of desire and affection, whose Latin name means “love” in English.
- Lace is a common fabric associated with Valentine’s Day because it comes from the Latin word ‘laques,’ meaning ‘to catch,’ as in catching someone’s heart.
List 25 shares these fun facts:
- About 1 billion valentines are exchanged each year, making Valentine’s Day the second largest card-giving holiday of the year, behind Christmas, when more than 2 billion cards are sent.
- XOXO is a common sight on love notes, symbolizing kisses and hugs. Many believe the X comes from medieval times when people who couldn’t write would sign their names with an X in front of a witness, then kiss it to show sincerity.
- England’s King Henry VII officially declared February 14th St. Valentine’s Day in 1537.
- Physicians in the 1800’s recommended that patients depressed over lost love eat chocolate to feel better.
- 189 million roses are sold each year in the U.S. and 15 percent of women send flowers to themselves. The rose became the go-to Valentine’s Day flower, as it was the favorite flower of Venus, the Roman goddess of love.
- 220,000 couples on average get engaged each Valentine’s Day.