St Valentine's Day Feb 14th 2012
VALENTINE'S DAY TRIVIA
The Shrine to St Valentine in Dublin, where in a casket
beneath the shrine are said to be some of the remains of
St Valentine
~ About 1 billion Valentine's Day cards are exchanged each year. That's the largest seasonal card-sending occasion of the year, next to Christmas.
~ February 14, 270 A.D. : Roman Emperor Claudius II, dubbed "Claudius the Cruel," beheaded a priest named Valentine for performing marriage ceremonies.
~ Hallmark has over 1330 different cards specifically for Valentine's Day.
~ In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.
~ Wearing a wedding ring on the ring finger of the left hand dates back to ancient Egypt, where it was believed that the vein of love ran from this finger directly to the heart.
~ The Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare's lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet every Valentine's Day.
~ The red rose was the favorite flower of Venus, the Roman goddess of love. Red stands for strong feelings which is why a red rose is a flower of love.
~ Valentine's Day is big business. Consumers will spend an average of $77.43 on Valentine's Day gifts this year.