Many of us envision Valentine’s Day as a day full of love, along with red roses, boxed chocolates, and cute little stuffed animals. However, there are some fun facts about Valentine’s Day you may not have known. 

It was in the 1840s that we got the first mass-produced valentines.

In the 1840s, people started exchanging cards and handwritten letters to both significant others and friends.

The tradition of giving Valentine’s Day flowers dates back to the 17th century.

The gift of red roses is a classic symbol of romance. However, giving flowers became popular in the late 17th century. This gift can be traced back to when King Charles II of Sweden learned the “language of flowers” and learned the significance of the colors of roses. 

The color of a flower holds meaning.

It is well known that the color red symbolizes love, but other colors, such as pink or white, can signify happiness or sympathy.  

Nearly 250 million roses are grown in preparation for Valentine’s Day each year.

There has been an exact science created around rapidly growing roses. This ensures plenty of roses to go around on February 14th. 

Americans spend a lot of money on Valentine’s Day.

The American average of how much is spent solely on this Day is around 27.4 billion dollars, and a portion of that is on candy alone. The average spent per individual is 290$ for men compared to 105$ for women spend. 

People also spend a lot on their furry friends.

Around 27 million Americans give their pets a Valentine’s Day gift. They spend an estimated $751.3 million on gifts for their pets on Valentine’s Day.

Conversation hearts started as lozenges.

A pharmacist in Boston wanted to create something that would work for sore throats and possibly other sicknesses. He invented the machine to produce these. Soon enough, the pharmacist opened a candy shop rather than making lozenges.

More than 8 billion conversation hearts are manufactured each year.

The pharmacist began making them for valentines day and had to mass produce them to have enough for the big Day. There were about 100,000 pounds of them being made a day. They had approximately 45 different sayings to go on them. 

In 2019, conversation hearts were very difficult to get.

When the pharmacist’s business, “Necco,” went out of business in 2018, other brands still hadn’t produced enough of the hearts to be the primary source of them, so for Valentine’s Day of 2019, other brands failed to make enough to keep up with the demand.

Galentine’s Day is becoming popular. 

This is a holiday that is celebrated on February 13th and was introduced by Leslie Knope in 2010. Galentine’s Day is all about “Ladies celebrating ladies.” Research has shown that Galentine’s Day has been celebrated 400% more since 2015. 

XOXO didn’t always mean hugs and kisses.

The abbreviation “XOXO” was initially used in the middle ages. The “X” stood for the Christian cross, and the “O” ended with the sign to symbolize an oath. 

Lovebirds are actual birds.

The term lovebirds are often used as an expression to name a couple. However, these are actual birds. They are parrots native to Africa and typically travel to Paris, which is why they were labeled “lovebirds.”

William Shakespeare inspired the love letter tradition.

The famous play Romeo and Juliet widely inspired the tradition of writing love letters. 

States have a city named Valentine.

Four states have named one of their cities after valentines day. These states include Arizona, Nebraska, Texas, and Virginia. Virginia is the only one that adds an “s” at the end of Valentine’s.