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Valentines Day Around the World |
St Valentine's
Day, celebrated around the world on 14
February, has been unable to escape
controversy.
The Chinese authorities are suspicious of
the religious origins of the celebrations,
while conservative Hindus in India consider
Valentine's Day to be an alien Western
import.
However, neither ideological objection or
militant intervention appears to have been
able to check the growing international
popularity of this day.
DENMARK
In Denmark, people swap poems and candy
snowdrops. Some people also send, not
serious love notes, but laughable notes
which are called gaekkebrev (joking
letters). On the gaekkebrev, the sender
signs his or her name in dots. If the
receiver guesses the correct name then the
sender will a candy egg at Easter time.
GERMANY, SPAIN, AUSTRIA
Germans, Austrians and some Americans who
share this tradition give roses, chocolates
etc to their wives. In other countries such
as Sapin, the wives give gifts to the
husband while the husband gives flowers to
his wife.
ITALY
In Italy, it is a tradition to get engaged
on Valentine's Day, February 14. Some shops
sell china baskets and cups which are filled
with Valentine candies and tied with ribbon
which you can give as Valentine presents.
Click on the cupid image on the right to
learn more about this famous symbol of
Valentine's Day.
Valentine's Day In Great Britain
During the medieval days of chivalry, the
names of English maidens and bachelors were
put into the box and drawn out in pairs.
Each couple exchanged gifts. The girl became
the man's valentine for that year. On his
sleeve he wore her name and it was his
bounded duty to attend and protect her.
This old, old custom of drawing names on the
fourteenth of February was considered a good
omen for love. It often foretold a wedding.
For since the beginning of things this has
been lovers' day, a time for loving, for
giving and receiving love tokens.
Also it known in Great Britain, Valentine's
Day began to be popularly celebrated around
the seventeenth century. By the middle of
the eighteenth century, it was common for
friends and lovers in all-social classes to
exchange small tokens of affection or
handwritten notes. By the end of the
century, printed cards began to replace
written letters due to improvements in
printing technology. Ready-made cards were
an easy way for people to express their
emotions in a time when direct expression of
one's feelings was discouraged. Cheaper
postage rates also contributed to an
increase in the popularity of sending
Valentine's Day greetings.
Valentine's Day In United States
Americans probably began exchanging
hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In
the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began to sell
the first mass-produced valentines in
America.
Esther Howland, the woman who produced the
first commercial American valentines in the
1840s, sold a then mind-boggling $5,000 in
cards during her first year of business. The
valentine industry in the United States has
been booming ever since. Today, according to
the Greeting Card Association over 1 billion
valentine cards are sent in this country
each year -- second in number only to
Christmas cards, making Valentine's Day the
second largest card-sending holiday of the
year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are
sent for Christmas.) Women purchase
approximately 85 percent of all valentines.
In addition to the United States,
Valentine's Day is celebrated in Canada,
Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, and
Australia Russia and many other countries |
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