I hope you all remembered Valentine’s Day?!  At least it over for another year!  How much of it is a great idea on behalf of card manufacturers?  The true meaning of Valentine’s can be found below:

1. Often chocolates and flowers are the gifts of choice these days, but what was the traditional gift given by a man to a woman on Valentine’s Day?  A pair of gloves, symbolising a request for a lady’s hand in marriage.
2. Who are sent the most Valentine’s Day cards?  Teachers, followed by children, mothers, wives and lovers.
3. Every Valentine’s Day, thousands of cards are sent to Verona, Italy.  Why?  They are sent to Shakespeare’s Juliet.
4. Who was  St. Valentine (most likely)?  A priest from Rome in 3^rd century AD.
5. How did Valentine’s Day start (most likely)?  Thought to have originated from a Roman festival called Lupercalia; as part of the fertility celebrations (honouring the protection of sheep from wolves!), boys drew names of girls from a box. They’d be boyfriend and girlfriend during the festival and sometimes they’d get married.
6. What else is St Valentine a patron saint of (besides love)?  Beekeepers! (As well as greetings cards manufacturers.)
7. What is said to start annually on February 14 in the animal world?  The mating season of birds.
8. Roughly how many Valentine’s cards are sent each year: 10m, 100m or 1bn?  1bn!
9. Somewhere in the UK, a mythical figure named ‘Jack’ Valentine does what on February 14^th?  In Norfolk, Jack knocks on the rear door and leaves sweets and presents for children; many, understandably, are scared of him.