TRIVIA:
QUOTES:
CHUCKLES/BELLY
LAUGHS & GROANERS
TRIVIA:
Valentine's
Day Trivia
15% of U.S.
women send themselves flowers on Valentine's Day.
73% of people who
buy flowers for Valentine's Day are men, while only 27 percent are women.
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.
About 3% of pet
owners will give Valentine's Day gifts to their pets.
Chocolate manufacturers
currently use 40 percent of the world's almonds and 20 percent of the world's
peanuts.
Alexander Graham
Bell applied for his patent on the telephone, an "Improvement in Telegraphy",
on Valentine's Day, 1876.
California produces
60 percent of American roses, but the vast number sold on Valentine's Day
in the United States are imported, mostly from South America. Approximately
110 million roses, the majority red, will be sold and delivered within
a three-day time period.
Cupid, another symbol
of Valentines Day, became associated with it because he was the son of
Venus, the Roman god of love and beauty. Cupid often appears on Valentine
cards holding a bow and arrows because he is believed to use magical arrows
to inspire feelings of love.
During the late
1800s, postage rates around the world dropped, and the obscene St.
Valentine's Day card became popular, despite the Victorian era being otherwise
very prudish. As the numbers of racy valentines grew, several countries
banned the practice of exchanging Valentine's Days cards. During
this period, Chicago's post office rejected more than 25,000 cards on the
grounds that they were so indecent, they were not fit to be carried through
the U.S. mail.
During the Middle
Ages, the belief that birds chose their mates on St. Valentine's
Day led to the idea that boys and girls would do the same. Up through
the early 1900s, the Ozark hill people in the eastern United States thought
that birds and rabbits started mating on February 14, a day for them which
was not only Valentine's Day but Groundhog Day as well.
February 14, 270
A.D. : Roman Emperor Claudius II, dubbed "Claudius the Cruel," beheaded
a priest named Valentine for performing marriage ceremonies. Claudius
II had outlawed marriages when Roman men began refusing to go to war in
order to stay with their wives.
Hallmark has over
1330 different cards specifically for Valentine's Day.
Humorous valentines
of the 19th century were called "Vinegar Valentines" or "Penny Dreadfuls."
Vinegar Valentines were introduced in 1858 by John McLaughin, a Scotsman
with a New York City Publishing Business. Penny Dreadfuls with comic
designs drawn in 1870 by American cartoonists Charles Howard became known
as Penny Dreadfuls.
In 1929 in Chicago,
gunmen in the suspected employment of organized-crime boss Al Capone murder
seven members of the George "Bugs" Moran North Siders gang in a garage
on North Clark Street. The so-called St. Valentine's Day Massacre
stirred a media storm centered on Capone and his illegal Prohibition-era
activities and motivated federal authorities to redouble their efforts
to find evidence incriminating enough to take him off the streets.
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.
In the United States,
64 percent of men do not make plans in advance for a romantic Valentine's
Day with their sweethearts.
In Victorian times
it was considered bad luck to sign a Valentine's Day card.
In Wales, wooden
love spoons were carved and given as gifts on February 14th. Hearts,
keys and keyholes were favorite decorations on the spoons. The decoration
meant, "You unlock my heart!"
It wasn't until
1537 that St. Valentine's Day was declared an official holiday.
England's King Henry VIII declared February 14th a holiday.
On February 14,
1779, Captain James Cook, the great English explorer and navigator, was
murdered by natives of Hawaii during his third visit to the Pacific island
group.
One single perfect
red rose framed with baby's breath is referred to by some florists as a
"signature rose," and is the preferred choice for many for giving on Valentine's
Day, anniversary, or birthday.
Only the U.S., Canada,
Mexico, France, Australia and the U.K. celebrate Valentine's Day.
Sir Alexander Fleming
was a young bacteriologist when an accidental discovery led to one of the
great developments of modern medicine. Having left a plate of staphylococcus
bacteria uncovered, Fleming noticed that a mold that had fallen on the
culture had killed many of the bacteria. He identified the mold as
penicillium notatum, similar to the kind found on bread. On February
14, 1929, Fleming introduced his mold by-product called penicillin to cure
bacterial infections.
Some people used
to believe that if a woman saw a robin flying overhead on Valentine's Day,
it meant she would marry a sailor. If she saw a sparrow, she would
marry a poor man and be very happy. If she saw a goldfinch, she would
marry a millionaire.
Teachers will receive
the most Valentine's Day cards, followed by children, mothers, wives, and
then, sweethearts. Children ages 6 to 10 exchange more than 650 million
Valentine's cards with teachers, classmates, and family members.
The Empire State
Building in New York City played a prominent role in the movie Sleepless
in Seattle. This year 15 couples will take (or renew) their vows
on the 80th floor of this famous landmark.
The first American
publisher of valentines was printer and artist Esther Howland. During
the 1870s, her elaborate lace cards were purchased by the wealthy, as they
cost a minimum of 5 dollars - some sold for as much as 35 dollars.
Mass production eventually brought prices down, and the affordable "penny
valentine" became popular with the lower classes.
The first photograph
of a U.S. President was taken on February 14, 1849 by Matthew Brady
in New York City. President James Polk was the subject of the famous
picture. .
The first televised
tour of the White House aired on February 14 in 1962. First Lady
Jackie Kennedy hosted the tour.
The heart is the
most common symbol of romantic love. Ancient cultures believed the
human soul lived in the heart. Others thought it to be the source
of emotion and intelligence. Some believed the heart embodied a man's
truth, strength and nobility. The heart may be associated with love
because the ancient Greeks believed it was the target of Eros, known as
Cupid to the Romans. Anyone shot in the heart by one of Cupid's arrows
would fall hopelessly in love. Because the heart is so closely linked
to love, it's red colour is thought to be the most romantic.
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 most fantastic
gift of love is the Taj Mahal in India. It was built by Mughal Emperor
Shahjahan as a memorial to his wife, who died in childbirth. Work
on the Taj began in 1634 and continued for almost 22 years. required
the labor of 20,000 workers from all over India and Central Asia.
The oldest known
Valentines were sent in 1415 A.D. by the Duke of Orleans to his French
wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. It is still
on display in a museum in England.
The oldest surviving
love poem is written in a clay tablet from the times of the Sumerians,
inventors of writing, around 3500 B.C. It was unromantically named
Istanbul #2461 by the archeologists who unearthed it.
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. E-commerce retailers expect to rack up about
$650 million in sales of food, candy, flowers, and other Valentine's Day
gifts. Of that amount about $350 million will be for gifts and flowers
and another $45 million will be spent on food (including chocolate) and
wine.
Wearing a wedding
ring on the fourth 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.
A ring has been
included in wedding ceremonies since the 12th century. Pope Innocent
the Third ordained that marriages had to take place in church and that
a wedding ring should be exchanged during the service.
In England, the
Romans, who had taken over the country, had introduced a pagan fertility
festival held every February 14. After the Romans left England, nearly
a century later, the pagan ritual was abolished by Pope Gelsius who established
St.Valentine's Day as a celebration of love in 496 A.D.
In America, the
pilgrims sent confections, such as sugar wafers, marzipan, sweetmeats and
sugar plums, to their betrothed. Great value was placed on these
gifts because they included what was then a rare commodity, sugar.
After the late 1800's, beet sugar became widely used and more available,
and sweet gifts continued to be valued and enjoyed.