Ten facts you never knew about Valentine’s Day

February 2nd, 2009 by Graham

Ten facts you never knew about Valentines Day I’ve dug out some fascinating facts about Valentine’s Day, and thought you would be interested in hearing them. Without further ado, let’s kick off..

1. About 3% of pet owners are likely to buy Valentine’s gifts for their pets. I haven’t found out what you’re supposed to give your pet goldfish as a Valentine’s Day present – but if you have any ideas, please let me know.

2. 15% of American women will send themselves flowers on Valentine’s Day. Do they do this in an attempt to make their lazy-good-for-nothing husbands and boyfriends jealous, or to show off to their friends and work colleagues how popular they are?

3. Torvill & Dean won their famous figure-skating gold medal at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics on Valentine’s Day, 1984. Yes, it was 25 years ago since they skated their perfect 6.0 scores to Ravel’s Bolero. Bet you’re feeling old now. Personally, it’s one of my greatest regrets that I’ve never learnt how to ice-skate. I’m just too terrified of falling over, I freeze like a wombat when I take to the ice.

4. During Victorian times, it was considered bad luck to sign and send a Valentine’s Day card. I love that it says “and send” in my fascinating Valentine’s Day fact book. It’s as though it’s perfectly okay to sign a Valentine’s Day card, just so long as you don’t then actually give it to anybody.

Romeo & Juliet wall, Verona 5. Every year, the city of Verona in Italy, setting of William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, receives over 1000 Valentine’s Day cards addressed to “Juliet”. The mind boggles. Who is sending these cards? Is it the Verona tourist office? I wouldn’t put it past those crafty Italians to do this as an annual publicity stunt.

6. Chicago’s post office rejected more than 25,000 cards in the late 1800s on the grounds of indecency. And you thought those near-the-knuckle cards in the corner of the shop were a sign of declining standards in modern society..

7. 64% of American men do not make plans in advance for a romantic day with their partners. Boo.. shame on them. And there I was believing that men would be more romantic than women on Valentine’s Day.

8. In the Middle Ages, young men and women would draw names out of a bowl to see who their Valentines would be. The names would then be worn on their sleeves for a week, giving us the phrase “to wear your heart on your sleeve”.

9. Over one billion Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year. This makes it the second biggest card-sending holiday of the year, after Christmas.

10. Teachers receive the most Valentine’s Day cards. Next in the list come children, mothers, wives, and then, sweethearts. Apparently children between the age of 6-10 exchange more than 650 million Valentine’s Day cards with their teachers, classmates and family members.

Do you know any Valentine’s Day facts? Why not let us know..