Best Valentine’s Day Trivia: Know before You Love

It is that time of the year again when your heart pumps faster, the air smells sweet and red suddenly becomes your favourite shade. Valentine’s Day calls for a celebration, raise a toast to love and the trivia surrounding it. So, no matter how love-struck you are, you must know these before you love!

1.The Beginning of Valentine’s Day

Saint Valentine

Romance accentuates when it’s secret. And it all began when Emperor Claudius II of Rome outlawed marriage for young men, for he though bachelors can serve the country better, being free from family bondings. This event dates back to the Third Century, and even then love was unstoppable. Priest St. Valentine served the age as the cupid and continued helping young Christian couples get married, secretly. Later he was held as a convicted for this love-act, severely tortured and beheaded, and the day was February 14. Hence, you get Valentine’s Day!

Late Saint Valentine’s skull

2. Saint Valentine and Love

But it was not immediately after St. Valentine’s sacrifice that the world started taking 1February 14 as the Love Day! Initially, the day was a commemoration to remember St. Valentine’s services to the mankind, as declared by Pope Gelasius. It was in England and France during the middle ages, 14th February started getting associated with love-affair as the time also happens to be the mating season for birds!

3. Shakespeare’s Valentine Connection

A scene from ‘Hamlet’

The Father of English Literature William Shakespeare was a master of weaving love webs in his legendary works and it is two times, that he has used the Valentine's Day reference in his plays. First being ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and the second is one of Shakespeare’s finest works, ‘Hamlet’, where Hamlet himself alludes to quite a romantic thought that if two single people meet each other on the Valentine’s Day morning, they are likely to get married! Classic!

4. Chocolates are Forever

Richard Barrow Cadbury

Love and chocolates share an eternal connection. And why not? Richard Cadbury, the second son of the Quaker John Cadbury and founder of Cadbury's cocoa and chocolate company, made the first chocolate bar on Valentine’s Day in the 1800s. How farsighted!

5. Get Valentine Gift from a Girl

What happens when girls chase guys? Well, Japan has this extraordinary tradition where women gift chocolates to their male partners, colleagues or alike! Known as ‘Giri Choco’ the culture boosts the chocolate business in Japan during this time. Who says girls don’t spend after guys?

Share with us if you have more interesting Valentine’s Day trivia with you. And don’t forget to spread the love amongst your friends and families. The day of love certainly demands it. Happy Valentine’s Day!