KissMeGoodnight.com Article Series: Valentine's Day
Tips & Ideas For A Romantic Valentine's Day

What Are Valentine’s Day Traditions?

St. Valentine’s Day is celebrated all across the world on February 14th as a day to commemorate the essence of love and happiness in our lives. Young and old couples, newly weds, and even singles participate in the celebrations every year. Traditionally couples on this day exchange their truest and deepest feelings of love and affection towards each other in various ways.

You also come across Valentine’s Day marriages when couples decide to tie the knot on this special day to make their wedding all the more memorable.

You might be interested in knowing about some of the age-old as well as modern Valentine traditions coming down through years and practiced each year by friends and lovers all over the world on this special day.

Here is a brief overview of the different ancient and modern day V-Day traditions followed in different parts of the world.

From times immemorial since Valentine’s Day celebrations began the tradition of exchanging cards follows till date. Different forms of cards in myriad designs and styles were exchanged to convey love and affection. Lovers exchanged cards set in intricate lace paper, handmade paper that were variously decorated with beads, sea shells, cones, seeds, berries, dried seaweed, moss, dried/artificial flowers, etc. These cards contained tender love messages for the beloved written in hand. Nowadays this tradition still persists and lovers exchange instant e- love cards online!

The tradition of exchanging flowers and expressing profound love and feelings on Valentine’s Day is quite popular. Red signifies love and passion so red roses were the ultimate choice that most lovers gifted to their sweethearts to convey their emotions on V-Day. However, nowadays couples also exchange other exotic flower varieties such as wild orchids, brightly colored carnations, lilies, etc. to woo their beloved on Valentine’s Day!

Lovers would also compose beautiful and heart-warming verses and sonnets on love and passion portraying their intense emotions in words. In the olden days these literary compositions on love and affairs would be published in magazines and periodicals on February 14th commemorating St. Valentine’s preaching of love and friendship.

Another Scottish Valentine tradition was that on the V-Day the very first man or woman that passes by you on the street or anywhere else that day would become your valentine!

Centuries ago it was customary in Italy that all young couples would assemble in a beautiful landscaped garden where the lovers would exchange love songs and poetries to celebrate their love for one another. Then they would stroll off together holding hands into the garden. This V-Day tradition ceased to exist in the modern times.

In the Middle Ages young men and women would pick up chits scribbled with names from bowls to see who their Valentines would be. They would then wear these names on their sleeves for one week to convey their feelings. Men with the name of a girl up their sleeve would have to protect her during the following year and both the girl and the boy would exchange love tokens throughout the year.

Another Valentine’s Day tradition was to gift wooden love spoons to the one you love that had hearts, keys and keyholes variously etched on them. These carvings indicated, “You unlock my heart!”

In Japan women buy chocolate gifts of two kinds on the occasion of Valentine’s Day, namely, giri choco and honmei choco. The former chocolate gift is an obligatory gift that Japanese women present to their male bosses or male colleagues at office while the latter is brought for that special someone in addition to other Valentine gifts.

The ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia was celebrated every February in honor of the God Lupercus who the Romans believed kept a watch over the shepherds and protected their flocks from hungry wolves. During this festival also a custom in honor of the Goddess Juno Februata was held. The names of young women were put into a box and names were drawn by lot. The boys and girls who were matched would be considered partners for the year.

Another interesting Valentine’s Day tradition was people believed that if you found a single glove on the road on V-Day, your would-be valentine would have the second one of the pair!

Well Valentine’s Day traditions are just so numerous. People in different parts of the world have come up with unique ideas and customs to convey their deepest feelings to the one they love and adore through the ages! Whatever Valentine tradition or custom one follows on this special day the bottom line will always remain the same: “SPREAD LOVE AND BE LOVED!”

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by KissMeGoodnight.com : 2006

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