You'll Love Learning These Surprising Valentine's Day Facts (2024)

When it comes to Valentine’s Day, there are certain traditions—like flowers and chocolate—that we take at face value despite not knowing their true significance to the holiday. But there are some surprising numbers and facts behind those Valentine’s Day gifts and desserts that we look forward to every February 14. For instance the annual consumption of heart-shaped boxes of chocolate is a staggering number that you probably never would have guessed (think: eight figures). And don’t even get us started on the significance of lace doilies in our Valentine's Day crafts.

Here, we're sharing a list of our favorite Valentine's Day facts in the hopes that they'll make each caramel-covered, ooey-gooey, chocolatey treat that much sweeter—and each Valentine's Day card that much more fun to write. After all, if you really love the holiday, you might as well learn everything there is to know about the history of Valentine's Day, right? Like, who St. Valentine is, anyway. (He’s different from Cupid, right?)

You could even make a Valentine's Day activity out of quizzing your partner on some of these trivia-ready facts. (Just make sure you reward them with a delicious steak dinner—this is Valentine's Day we're talking about, after all!)

According to Time.com, the concept of flowers having different meanings dates back to the 18th century when Lady Montagu sent a series of letters from Turkey to her home in England describing the Turkish flower language known as sélam. She misinterpreted it to mean that every flower symbolizes a different sentiment used to send love letters. Though this wasn't exactly true, the concept spread throughout society with the publication of a dictionary for the language of flowers in 1819. In turn, sales of roses (a perceived symbol of love and beauty) skyrocketed in the 19th century.

“Lovebirds” is commonly used to describe two people who are very much in love, especially around Valentine’s Day. But did you know that the taxonomic origin of this figure of speech is more literal than its everyday use? The word is also the common name for Agap*rnis birds, native to Africa. The brightly colored parrots mate for life, travel in pairs, and even feed each other—similar to couples you might see when going out to eat on Valentine’s Day.

According to a survey from Wedding Wire, Valentine's Day was the most popular day in 2020. This matches up with plenty of other surveys which have found that February 14 Christmas, and New Year's are all dates that people love to pop the question.

In 2020 alone, people planned to spend a whopping $1.7 billion on their pets for the holiday of love. That means toys, clothes, beds, and more! The real question is, are gifts for our pets really just presents for ourselves?

Near the end of the fifth century or around 500 A.D., Pope Gelasius declared February 14 as St. Valentine's Day. As for the origin and reasoning, that's a bit murkier.

Yep, you heard that right! Charles, the Duke of Orléans, was imprisoned in the Tower of London when he was 21 years old. In 1415, he wrote a letter to his wife with a poem that used the term "Valentine" to refer to her. The first line read, "My very gentle Valentine," and is considered by many to be the very first recorded valentine.

The movie that made the most money of all time was the historical romance Titanic which brought in $659 million total at the domestic box office. Well, it held the title of highest-grossing until Avatar came out twelve years later.

Lace can be seen all around on Valentine's Day, from ribbons to gift boxes. Well, the word itself has an origin befitting the holiday: the English word "lace" comes from the Latin word for "snare", as in you ensnare someone's heart. Put that in your next Valentine's Day card!

Pharmacist Oliver Chase initially cut medicinal lozenges by hand but eventually started making versions without medicine because candy was becoming popular. In the mid 1800s, he invented a lozenge-cutting machine to speed up the process and later a lozenge-printing machine to print words onto candy.

How do you let distant loved ones know you care on valentines day? Probably a call or text. Alexander Graham Bell, the man who invented the telephone, applied for a patent on February 14, 1876.

It's unclear: For starters, there was more than one St. Valentine. Some historians point to a third-century Roman priest who secretly married couples in defiance of the Roman emperor Claudius II Gothicus. Others point to a different priest—this one thrown in jail for attempting to assist Christians in Roman prisons.

Yep, you read that right! We won't get into the gory details, but it goes without saying that those first celebrations were a far cry from the Valentine's Day we know and love today.

Instead, the real Cupid was an "unconquerable" mythological God named Eros, according to Time.com. He was initially depicted as a young man who, despite being handsome and possessing the capability to make people fall in love, was also quite threatening.

During a Middle Ages festival that celebrated the goddess Juno, Roman men were known to have drawn the names of potential partners on their arms.

The National Retail Federation reported that Americans spent more than $21 billion on Valentine's Day gifts in 2021 alone. And that was during the ongoing pandemic, for goodness' sake!

Another statistic from the National Retail Federation claims that gifts for pets made up a whopping $1.3 billion of the money spent on Valentine's Day in 2021. That's more than the $1.1 billion spent on coworkers!

The tradition of eating chocolate on Valentine's Day is mostly due to the efforts of one man, Richard Cadbury, the son of the Cadbury Chocolate manufacturer. Simply to encourage more sales, he started packaging his chocolates in heart-shaped boxes—and, well, the rest is history.

It's ahead of Christmas and Mother's Day. (Sorry, Mom!) By the way, more than half of Valentine's Day flower purchases are roses—but we bet you knew that.

Dozens of plausible theories abound, but they've simply never been confirmed. And we're not the only generation that's been confused. According to The Washington Post, there are many citations from as early as 1880 that bemoan the perplexing symbol. One such poem reads, “Why do our sweet sentimental young misses / In love letters make little crosses for kisses?”

Yes, 36 million. Just so we're clear, that's a total of 58 million pounds of chocolate! Makes you feel a little better about the few extra pieces you ate after dinner, doesn't it?