lake forest shores

Valentine's Day Celebration

February 14, 2018

The day of romance, Valentine's Day, is upon us. A popular festival of romance where flowers, cards, chocolates, gifts are exchanged to show your love towards your sweetheart, parents, friends, siblings, teachers and whomever else you choose. Throughout time, the celebration of Valentine's Day has gained immense popularity and commercial success, enough to rank 2nd place after Christmas in greeting card sales. As for flower and chocolate sales, both are expected to soar like the previous years. In fact, last year flowers sales had a surge of 250% in sales and chocolates increased by 650%.

It's amazing to think about how much of an impact Valentine's Day has made with its success in reaching out to the masses worldwide. Of course, there is a lot of history behind it's origin going back to the Middle Ages.


Let's start with the most famous mythological person associated with Valentine's Day, "Cupid". In Roman mythology, Cupid is the son of Venus, goddess of love. Cupid was known to be the mischievous boy who wounded both gods and humans with his arrows, causing them to fall in love; therefore, his association with Valentine's Day.

As for how it began back in the Middle Ages, it is said that Valentine's Day was to commemorate the acts of Saint Valentinus who defied Emperor Claudius II by secretly officiating marriages among soldiers by defying the emperor's order, but was later imprisoned and executed. It seemed Emperor Claudius II believed that soldiers did better in battle without the distractions of marriage...Yikes! Furthermore, it was believed that before the execution of Saint Valentinus, he wrote a letter to the daughter of his jailer, Julia, whom he had loved and signed it “From your Valentine.”

It wasn't until 18th century England that Valentine's Day was being celebrated like it is today with the exchange of cards, candies, flowers and other gifts as an expression of love.

To date, it is estimated that 1+ billion Valentine's Day greeting cards are exchanged every year in the U.S. (I'm sure that doesn't include e-cards)