Valentine’s day hold many untold stories. Here are eight facts you probably didn’t know about Valentines Day.
1. Penicillin, which can be used to treat venereal diseases like syphilis, was introduced to the world on Valentine’s Day in 1929.
2. Teachers, kids and mom all receive more Valentine’s Day gifts than wives or sweethearts.
3. Everyone knows the story of St. Valentine who was jailed for performing illegal marriages and signed off his letters with “Your Valentine”, but the roots of Valentine’s Day can also be traced to a Roman fertility festival called Lupercalia where men would draw the name of a woman, then keep her as his sexual partner for the year. Which story do you prefer?
4. Pets get extra love on Valentine’s day too. More than nine million people buy Valentine’s Day gifts for their pets.
5. The longest recorded marriage of all time spans 86 years. Herbert and Zelmyra Fisher of Brownsville USA were married for this long before Herbert sadly passed away. Now that’s love that lasts a lifetime!
6. Single women you’re in luck. There are 119 men, never married or divorced, in their 20s for every 100 single women.
7. The phrase “wear your heart on your sleeve” comes from the Middle Ages where young men and woman would draw names to see who their Valentine’s would be. They then pinned the name of their love on their sleeves for a week so everyone would know their true feelings.
8.The first Valentine’s Day box of chocolates was introduced by Richard Cadbury in 1868. One wonders what gifts people gave each other before then.
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