Weekly Brief 14th February 2020

Saint Valentine of Rome allegedly restored the sight of the daughter of the judge persecuting him, and sent her the first valentine with a letter signed Your Valentine before his execution on February 14^th 300 AD for illegally marrying soldiers. The Western Christian Feast Day was created in his honour.

Chaucer made one of the earliest associations between courtly love and the feast day in his 1375 poem Parlement of Foules, an association that did not exist prior. This resurfaces in 1590 in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: ‘To be your Valentine’ – but this is not his only contribution to the holiday as thousands of love letters are sent every year to Verona addressed to his character Juliet.

Everyone’s favourite romantic cliché poem first crops up in Spenser’s The Faerie Queene in 1590 (‘She bath’d with roses red, and violets blew’), before appearing as a nursery rhyme collection in 1784: ‘The rose is red, the violet’s blue // The honey’s sweet, and so are you.’

The Victorians popularised St Valentine’s as the celebration of love by introducing Paper Valentines which were produced in, what Dickens called, ‘Cupid’s Manufactory’ and Fancy Valentines, made with real lace and ribbons. These predated the first greeting card in 1843 for Christmas.

Mayan’s used cocoa as part of their wedding ceremonies for fertility as the bride and groom would exchange sips of hot cocoa, whilst the Aztecs believed it to be an aphrodisiac (this has been disproved by modern science).

The year after the postage stamp was introduced in 1840 400,000 Valentines were sent across the UK, giving way to the anonymous love letter and allowing the otherwise prudish Victorians to send risqué verses or ‘vinegar valentines’ to enemies of the heart – by 1871, 1.2 million cards were sent and postmen were given extra meal allowances.

Cadbury introduced Fancy Boxes in 1868 – the heart shaped chocolate box keepsake – and was copied by other major chocolate manufacturers so these continue to fill shop shelves today with more than 36 million sold a year!

The Victorians also introduced the rose giving trend in honour of Venus, the goddess of love. Now, Interflora delivers around 3 bouquets a second on Valentines!

Spending on cards alone in the UK was £1.7bn in 2018, and this year the day is forecasted to be worth around $27.4 bn, up 32% from last year as marketing begins to extend beyond romantic love.  Spending on pets is over $1.7billion, and since the airing of Parks and Recreation’s ‘Galentine’s Day’ episode in 2010, spending on friends has tripled – in the UK, it reached £853m in 2019, 7.8% more than 2018.

145 million valentines are sent each year in the US, making it the second biggest occasion for sales of greeting cards after Christmas. Valentines was a precursor to the ‘Hallmark’ holidays after it was introduced in 1847 by Esther Howland, inspired by the English practice of sending valentines which had travelled across the pond through transatlantic lovers.

As the Western holiday has spread to a global phenomenon, here are some of the different ways it is celebrated around the world:

Denmark: Men traditionally send ‘gaekkebrev’ – funny poems – to those they love. In a sort of lover’s game of hangman, they are signed anonymously with a line of dots for each letter of their name and if the receiver guesses the name successfully, they are owed an Easter egg.

Japan: Valentine’s day was imported in the 1950s by a chocolate company wanting to cash in on the tradition in the Japanese market – but the concept got lost in translation. Their advertising campaign centred around women gifting chocolate to men, as opposed to the Western tradition of the other way round, and is now engrained in their culture and is not just limited to romantic interests, but any men in their lives with chocolate companies making half their annual sales on Valentines.

South Africa: Inspired by the Roman fertility festival Lupercalia, women wear their heart on their sleeves – literally – by pinning the name of their lovers or crushes on their shirt sleeves.

Estonia and Finland: They celebrate a more inclusive holiday instead called Friends Day, celebrating the love between friends instead of romantic connections. There is even a ‘love bus’ for hopeful singletons to make a love connection.

Philippines: Here it is tradition for couples to partake in mass weddings, which can see hundreds of couples in a single ceremony, and thousands involved across the country.

El Salvador: Similar to Secret Santa, the traditional game of Secret Friend is common with the usual gift exchange after drawing names, and the giver must say one kind thing about the recipient when gifting them.

Saudi Arabia: Valentine’s Day is banned here, with roses and romantic cards illegal to sell in the lead up to the 14^th, and public displays of affection are punishable by law. But there is an underground market that sells red roses for those that are truly dedicated…