an essay about valentine's day

China Daily PDF
China Daily E-paper
Music&Theater
Film&TV
Events&Festivals
Cultural Exchange

Festive China: The romantic story behind China's Valentine's Day

The seventh day of the seventh lunar month is Qixi, widely regarded as China's Valentine's Day.

Legend has it that the youngest daughter of the Jade Emperor (the ruler of the world as per the legend), the Weaver Girl, became tired of the boring immortal life and decided to descend to the mortal world. She met and fell in love with a cowherd, a union strongly objected by the Jade Emperor who in turn forcibly separated them by the Milky Way, leaving them torn apart by the galaxy and only allowing them to meet once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.

The distance did not weaken their affection toward one another, as they still loved each other and looked forward to meeting once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.

Watch this video to learn more about the legend, as well as traditions and customs related to Qixi.

Festive China is a series of short clips focusing on traditional Chinese festivals and festivities, the cultural connotations of traditional holidays, their development and changes, and how they manifest in today's China.

Festive China: Autumn
Shanghai Int'l Film Festival hosts Japanese Film Week
Festive China: Dragon Boat Festival
Regardless of name, an event worth celebrating

The Star ePaper
Subscriptions
Manage Profile
Change Password
Manage Logins
Manage Subscription
Transaction History
Manage Billing Info
Manage For You
Manage Bookmarks
Package & Pricing

HK actress Carina Lau shares photo of her 'little love' on Chinese Valentine's Day – no Tony Leung in sight

Entertainment

Monday, 12 Aug 2024

The boy comes from a prestigious family in Hong Kong. Photo: Carina Lau/Instagram

On Qixi Festival, also known as Chinese Valentine's Day, which fell on Saturday (Aug 10), Hong Kong actress Carina Lau shared a series of photos on Instagram featuring herself with a young boy.

The caption read: “Happy Qixi Festival! My little love.”

While many of her followers praised Lau for looking as stunning as ever, some expressed disappointment that she did not include a photo with her husband, actor Tony Leung Chiu Wai, on this special day.

The 58-year-old star has been married to Leung, 62, for 16 years.

In June, reports indicated that Leung was in Europe filming Silent Friend , directed by Oscar-nominated Hungarian director Ildiko Enyedi and co-starring French actress Lea Seydoux.

As for the “little love” in Lau’s post, the boy is said to be Rocco, the son of Victoria Tang-Owen and Christopher Owen. Tang-Owen is the daughter of David Tang, founder of the Chinese luxury brand Shanghai Tang.

Tang-Owen is also a notable figure, having co-founded the multidisciplinary design studio Thirty30 Creative and the Victoria Tang Design Studio.

Found a mistake in this article?

Report it to us.

Thank you for your report!

Fast-track your career with new accounting pathways for students

Next in entertainment.

Trending in Lifestyle

Air pollutant index, highest api readings, select state and location to view the latest api reading.

Select Location

Source: Department of Environment, Malaysia

Others Also Read

Best viewed on Chrome browsers.

We would love to keep you posted on the latest promotion. Kindly fill the form below

Thank you for downloading.

We hope you enjoy this feature!

Search Please fill out this field.
Newsletters
Sweepstakes
Jennifer Lopez

Violet Affleck Wore Jennifer Lopez's Dress With a Sentimental Connection to Ben Affleck

We sense a 'Parent Trap' scheme in the works.

Alicia Brunker is a freelance writer who covers celebrity, royal, and fashion news for InStyle.com. She joined InStyle's digital team in 2017, and previously contributed to ELLE, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, and WWD.

Violet Affleck is trying to Parent Trap Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez back together—at least, judging by the looks of her latest outfit.

On Sunday, the 18-year-old was spotted grabbing lunch with Lopez's twins Max and Emme in Los Angeles while wearing a dress with sentimental meaning to both her dad and stepmom. Seemingly reminding the estranged couple of happier times, Violet wore the same tonal pink wrap dress that J.Lo first debuted on a Valentine's Day date with Ben in 2023.

Coincidence? We think not.

Violet accessorized the frilly gown—which featured flowing sleeves, a deep V-neck, and contrasting pink pleats—with coordinating pink-rimmed glasses and unlaced red sneakers with white gym socks. Contrastingly, J.Lo previously paired the dress with gold platform heels, giant diamond stud earrings, and a white Dolce & Gabbana belt cinched around her waist.

Getty Images

For the past several months, Lopez and Affleck have been living separate lives , with the singer spending the summer on the East Coast, while the actor has stayed behind in Los Angeles. But despite all the tension, the couple is reportedly "trying to make this transition as easy as possible and be gentle on their children."

"They don't want to make things more upsetting than they already have been," a source previously told Entertainment Tonight , adding that Lopez and Violet, in particular, "have gotten close throughout Jen and Ben's relationship, and maintaining that closeness is important to everyone."

"Ben certainly doesn't want to cause any strain between Jen and Violet, and he is in support of them spending time together," the insider continued. "It's a little tricky for him, but both Jen and Ben want all their kids to be happy, regardless of the issues they are facing in their marriage."

Ben Affleck’s Daughter Violet Wears Stepmom Jennifer Lopez’s Valentine’s Day Dress

The dress appeared to be the same one that J. Lo wore on a past Valentine's Day date with Ben in 2023.

Violet Affleck at the White House to attend a state dinner

Violet Affleck is embracing her stepmom Jennifer Lopez ‘ s style! During an outing on Sunday, August 11, the 18-year-old daughter of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner was spotted rocking a pink Dolce & Gabbana dress that looked similar to the one that J. Lo, 55, wore on a 2023 Valentine’s Day date with Ben, 51.

According to photos published by Page Six , Violet stepped out in Los Angeles wearing the stylish dress along with a pair of red sneakers. When her stepmother last wore the frock, J. Lo accessorized with a gold belt and matching pumps while on a date with Ben.

In addition to Violet, Ben and ex-wife Jennifer, 52, also share children Seraphina and Samuel Affleck together.

Violet’s latest outing comes amid ongoing rumors about her father’s marriage to J. Lo. Since the Spring, multiple outlets have reported that J. Lo and Ben are headed for a divorce. While neither of them has directly commented on the speculation, Jennifer was asked about her and Ben’s relationship during the premiere of her Netflix film Atlas in May. After a reporter pressed her for details, Jennifer responded, “You know better than that.”

Jennifer Lopez with her stepdaughter Violet Affleck via Instagram Stories. pic.twitter.com/K27EfsEcME — Bennifer Updates (@BenniferUpdates) July 13, 2024

Later that month, the “Jenny From the Block” hitmaker canceled her 2024 tour, noting in a statement via her OnTheJLo newsletter that she “wouldn’t do this if [she] didn’t feel that it was absolutely necessary.” According to a separate statement from Live Nation, the multi-hyphenate was “taking time off to be with her children, family and close friends.”

Shortly thereafter, Jennifer and Ben reportedly listed their Beverly Hills home on the market. Throughout July, it appeared that the spouses spent some time apart, as J. Lo was spotted in the Hamptons while Ben was still in L.A. On her 55th birthday, the Argo actor reportedly purchased a new home.

The couple were first linked in 2002 after meeting on the set of their film, Gigli . They eventually got engaged but ended their relationship by 2004. Nearly 20 years later, Jennifer and Ben reunited in 2021. The following year, they tied the knot in Las Vegas and held a formal wedding ceremony one month later.

Throughout their rekindled relationship and subsequent marriage, Ben and Jennifer’s respective children became a blended family. J. Lo shares her twins, Max and Emme , with ex-husband Marc Anthony .

Shop 'til you drop with Post Wanted

Save time and money with the latest deals, discounts, trends, reviews and more.

Thanks for signing up!

Please provide a valid email address.

By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy .

Never miss a story with New York Post newsletters.

Still, despite any relationship drama between the stars, the two have managed to have quite the stylish summer.

While the “Air” star has been showing off a fresh faux hawk haircut , Lopez is embracing classic seasonal clothing, recently grabbing lunch with Emme while wearing wide-leg jeans, a cropped white tee, and oversized sunglasses.

Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck, and Violet Affleck

At the end of July, Lopez also celebrated her 55th birthday in a sparkly, sheer Dior dress and even slipped on her favorite white swimsuit with a plunging neckline — though her husband was not in attendance for her over-the-top “Bridgerton”-themed party .

The “Selena” actress has been seen spending time with Violet earlier in the summer, with the two walking arm-in-arm while out in the Hamptons.

The teen wore bold printed pants for the outing and also sported a mask, as she’s famously advocated against mask bans after contracting a post-viral condition .

Violet Affleck wears stepmom Jennifer Lopez's Dolce & Gabbana dress

“When I was a young girl in The Bronx, I never thought my world would be outside The Bronx and with these girls — I feel like I see myself in them,” she said. “It’s important for these young girls to see people that look like them, that’s from where they’re from, that are in positions in city government and even private sectors.

“I don’t want to be the last woman of color and I don’t want to be the last woman to hold such a position in the city like this,” Kinsella said.

NYPD First Deputy Commissioner Tania Kinsella has carved another new path for herself as a mentor to teen girls who love to run like she does.

Roughly 5,000 runners — including Kinsella and her mentees — took their marks at the Percy Sutton 5K road race during the hot and humid Manhattan summer morning.

Kinsella mentored the 29 teens, a grab bag of athletes and running neophytes from The Bronx and other low-income neighborhoods, as an ambassador for the New York Road Runners Run for the Future program .

As a long-distance runner for seven years who has nearly 60 Road Runners races and multiple marathons under her belt, Kinsella said the program was a chance to share a “gift to her life.

“It was a no-brainer,” she said. “Coupled with running and mentoring — two things that I have passion for and love — it’s been amazing.”

Rukayat Tali, 16, shows off a race medal.

Her group ran on a “buddy system,” with Kinsella pacing her match-up, 16-year-old Rukayat Tali, stride for stride.

In the final stretch of the race, Kinsella could be seen helping Rukayat off the pavement, clasping the teen runner’s hand in her own, and guiding the high-school student across the finish line.

Rukayat, who described the race’s hilly inclines of St. Nicholas Avenue as “really hard,” finished with a solid time of 29:56 and a pace per mile of 9:39.

NYPD First Deputy Commissioner Tania Kinsella runs with kids.

“She was amazing,” Rukayat said of Kinsella. “She really did push me, and I appreciated her a lot.

“I did my best. — and that’s all that matters,” the teen said.

Angelica Gervais, 18, also trekked from Queens to Harlem for her first race.

“At the beginning of the program, I couldn’t run for 5 minutes straight without stopping and breathing so heavy,” she said. “But now look at me — I ran a 5K today.”

Gervais gushed over the example Kinsella set, too.

“She’s so bold and bright, and she shows young women that we can accomplish anything we want — anything we put our minds to,” Angelica said. “She showed us that, even though she started all the way from the bottom, look how she made it all the way to the top.”

NYPD First Deputy Commissioner Tania Kinsella with young runners

The race, which is organized by the non-profit Road Runners, is named after another black trailblazer: Percy Sutton, a Harlem native, politician, lawyer, civil-rights activist and former Manhattan borough president who is widely credited with being one of the driving forces behind the New York City Marathon in 1976.

Saturday’s event coincided with the kick-off of the 50th anniversary of Harlem Week that Sutton also founded.

Researchers from Stanford and Google have made an entire AI village. The 25 bots that live there gossip, work, and plan Valentine's Day parties.

A research team at Stanford and Google has created a virtual village for 25 AI agents to live in.
They said the goal of this experiment was to create AI capable of believable, human-like behavior.
These AI bots can plan parties, discuss elections, and select birthday gifts, the researchers said.

A research team at Stanford and Google has created a virtual village where 25 artificial-intelligence agents lead lives eerily reminiscent of our own.

The bots "wake up," chat about the latest town gossip, and even plan events like Valentine's Day parties.

In a paper published Sunday , the researchers detailed how these AI agents — given names like "Mei" and "Sam" — autonomously planned their days, put together Valentine's Day parties, and formed opinions of each other when discussing and running in upcoming elections.

The researchers said the study aimed to create AI capable of producing believable, human-like behavior.

In one instance, researchers prompted one of the agents, "Isabella," to plan a Valentine's Day party. The other AI agents began autonomously spreading invitations to the party, decorating the venue, and making new acquaintances.

An agent called "Maria" even asked another agent named "Klaus" to the party.

Watch: What is ChatGPT, and should we be afraid of AI chatbots?

Main content

Skip to main content
Skip to secondary menu
Skip to primary sidebar
Skip to footer

A Plus Topper

Improve your Grades

Valentine’s Day Essay | Short Paragraph, Speech and History of Valentine’s day

February 13, 2023 by Prasanna

Valentine’s Day Essay: Valentine’s Day is said as the day for showing adoration, warmth, and care towards our friends and family. It is generally acknowledged as the day for communicating love. On this day individuals trade cards, gifts, roses and different images for advising their sentiments to their friends and family. On the fourteenth February of consistently, Valentine’s Day is commended.

Love is an unceasing inclination and for commending this inclination Valentine’s Day is made. The spring season falls in the long stretch of February; it carries delight to each face. The combination of crisp spring breeze with adoration tops off the delight of observing Valentine’s Day with enthusiasm. In the contemporary world, the week prior to the fourteenth of February is called ‘Valentine’s Week’.

You can read more Essay Writing about articles, events, people, sports, technology many more.

Valentine’s Day History

Saint Valentine was an aggregate of 14 holy people who spread out their life for Ancient Rome. In any case, a few groups accept that Valentine’s Day is an accolade for just one of these fourteen holy people. In Christian culture, a major dining experience is coordinated on Valentine’s Day to remember the day of entombment of Saint Valentine and to praise their adoration for their property and their suffering. In this way, the very motivation behind why Valentine’s Day is commended steers clear of the adoration between two darlings. Notwithstanding, attributable to mainstream society, Valentine’s Day has come to turn into a day when a man should communicate his affections for a lady and a lady should do likewise.

Specialty of Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is a celebration committed to adore. We regularly heard that adoration needn’t bother with a specific day to be commended. In any case, Valentine’s Day is made for recollecting the fellowship and connections to our friends and family. Valentines’ Day is trailed by Valentines’ Week and it is the stupendous fest dependent on the human feeling called love.

Like other fests, Valentine’s Day is likewise conveying an extraordinary history. Regularly, it is known as the day in the memory of Saint Valentine. Yet, a few sources say that there were numerous Bishops in Rome who attempted to spread love.

In antiquated Greece, The gentle winter season was commended as Valentine’s Day. As indicated by their folklore, this day was considered as the day when God Zeus wedded to Goddess Hera. Different legendary realities portray various stories at the beginning of Valentine’s Day. The tradition of the fest says that consistently zillions of wedding propositions are asked on 14, February.

It is seen that 75% of men buy Valentine’s Day Card in contrast with ladies. Valentine’s Day is very renowned in Christian-based nations. All throughout the planet, this fest is very famous in America, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Argentina, the Philippines, and so forth In the Philippines, mass weddings are coordinated on this day.

This event restores their holding. The idea of giving roses and chocolates is deductively identified with the heart. These modes of communicating love are considered as the best medium to address their caring ones.

Valentine’s Day is for the most part considered as a global celebration praising the sensation of adoration. Something other than being a day for the sweethearts, the day holds greater significance. It is a day to show and communicate our affection to anybody. At the point when we love our folks, we neglect to communicate it at some point. Thus, the day is an opportunity to communicate our affection for our folks, for our relatives, and for our companions and shut ones.

The fascinating reality about this day is that it is likewise an occasion for treats. More than 1,000,000 boxes of chocolate are allowed for Valentine’s Day consistently. Another intriguing truth is that Richard Cadbury was the principal individual to make chocolates for Valentine’s Day.

Finally, since Valentine’s Day is about affection, one should make it a highlight to spread the love around them. On this current Valentine’s Day, accomplish something that would cause individuals around you to feel glad. Work on something for the small children around you who don’t have anybody to deal with them. Additionally, an individual can go to an advanced age home and work on something for the elderly folk’s individuals who likewise have anyone left on the planet to call their own. Valentine’s Day is tied in with appearing and communicating your adoration and doing things that would cause somebody to feel that they are cherished. Spreading love is what’s really going on with Valentine’s Day.

Short Paragraph on Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is celebrated on 14th February every year as a day of adoration and friendship. It is your day of communicating adoration and appreciation towards your friends and family. Your day is praised to celebrate the penance of Saint Valentine who tapped out his life on the way of spreading love. Holy person, Valentine was the diocesan of a congregation in Italy who used to do weddings of fighters which was taboo all through that time. He was executed by the sets of the head for performing weddings that were considered illegal of the realm.

Individuals began commending your day of his penance as Valentine’s Day to remember the incredible holy person. Blossoms assume a significant part during Valentine’s Day with each shading portraying an extraordinary inclination and feeling. Heart-molded roses, gifts, chocolates, and hello cards are the most successful strategies to communicate love on Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day is known as a delicate breeze of adoration in the realm of brutality and disdain by spreading adoration and friendship.

FAQ’s on Valentine’s Day Essay

Question 1. What is Valentine’s day?

Answer: Valentine’s day is a day of celebrating love, affection with our loved ones such as soulmates, family and friends.

Question 2. When is Valentine’s day celebrated?

Answer: Valentine’s day is celebrated on 14th February.

Question 3. Valentine’s day is celebrated to commemorate whom?

Answer: In Christian culture, a major blowout is coordinated on Valentine’s Day to remember the day of interment of Saint Valentine and to commend their affection for their property and their suffering.

Picture Dictionary
English Speech
English Slogans
English Letter Writing
English Essay Writing
English Textbook Answers
Types of Certificates
ICSE Solutions
Selina ICSE Solutions
ML Aggarwal Solutions
HSSLive Plus One
HSSLive Plus Two
Kerala SSLC
Distance Education

History & Society
Science & Tech
Biographies
Animals & Nature
Geography & Travel
Arts & Culture
Games & Quizzes
On This Day
One Good Fact
New Articles
Lifestyles & Social Issues
Philosophy & Religion
Politics, Law & Government
World History
Health & Medicine
Browse Biographies
Birds, Reptiles & Other Vertebrates
Bugs, Mollusks & Other Invertebrates
Environment
Fossils & Geologic Time
Entertainment & Pop Culture
Sports & Recreation
Visual Arts
Demystified
Image Galleries
Infographics
Top Questions
Britannica Kids
Saving Earth
Space Next 50
Student Center

Why the history of Valentine's Day is so complicated

Who is Valentine’s Day named for?

How is valentine’s day celebrated.

If You'd Only Be My Valentine, American Valentine card, 1910. Cupid gathers a basket of red hearts from a pine tree which, in the language of flowers represents daring. Valentine's Day St. Valentine's Day February 14 love romance history and society heart In Roman mythology Cupid was the son of Venus, goddess of love (Eros and Aphrodite in the Greek Pantheon).

Valentine’s Day

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

Catholic Education Resource Center - History of St. Valentine
Ancient Origins - Day of Love? The Complex Origins of Valentine’s Day
World History Encyclopedia - Valentine's Day
Independent - Why do we celebrate Valentine’s Day? The unromantic origins of the day of love
University of Nevada, Las Vegas - News Center - The Hidden History of Valentine's Day
NPR - The dark origins of Valentine's Day
Public Broadcasting Service - St Valentine's Day Massacre
Historic UK - St Valentines Day
LiveScience - What's the Origin of Valentine's Day?
Valentine’s Day - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
Valentine’s Day - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

What is Valentine’s Day?

Valentine’s Day is a holiday when lovers express their affection with greetings and gifts. It is also called St. Valentine’s Day. The holiday has expanded to express affection between relatives and friends.

When is Valentine’s Day?

Valentine’s Day is celebrated annually on February 14.

Although there were several Christian martyrs named Valentine , Valentine’s Day may have taken its name from a priest who was martyred about 270 CE by the Roman emperor Claudius II Gothicus . Other accounts hold that it was St. Valentine of Terni , a bishop, for whom the holiday was named, though it is possible that the two saints were actually one person.

Where is Valentine’s Day celebrated?

Valentine’s Day is popular in the United States as well as in Britain , Canada , and Australia , and it is also celebrated in other countries, including Argentina , France , Mexico , and South Korea . In the Philippines , it is the most common wedding anniversary.

Valentine’s Day is commonly celebrated by exchanging handmade or store-bought “Valentines” ( greeting cards ) or other tokens of affection like chocolates and flowers. In many schools, it has become customary for young students to bring in Valentines to swap with classmates. Traditions of the holiday’s observance can vary with the country. Learn more.

Valentine’s Day , holiday (February 14) when lovers express their affection with greetings and gifts. Given their similarities, it has been suggested that the holiday has origins in the Roman festival of Lupercalia , held in mid-February. The festival, which celebrated the coming of spring, included fertility rites and the pairing off of women with men by lottery. At the end of the 5th century, Pope Gelasius I forbid the celebration of Lupercalia and is sometimes attributed with replacing it with St. Valentine’s Day, but the true origin of the holiday is vague at best. Valentine’s Day did not come to be celebrated as a day of romance until about the 14th century.

Although there were several Christian martyrs named Valentine, the day may have taken its name from a priest who was martyred about 270 ce by the emperor Claudius II Gothicus . According to legend , the priest signed a letter “from your Valentine” to his jailer’s daughter, whom he had befriended and, by some accounts, healed from blindness. Other accounts hold that it was St. Valentine of Terni , a bishop , for whom the holiday was named, though it is possible the two saints were actually one person. Another common legend states that St. Valentine defied the emperor’s orders and secretly married couples to spare the husbands from war. It is for this reason that his feast day is associated with love .

Watch a researcher explain the biological and psychological processes of how love works

Formal messages, or valentines , appeared in the 1500s, and by the late 1700s commercially printed cards were being used. The first commercial valentines in the United States were printed in the mid-1800s. Valentines commonly depict Cupid , the Roman god of love, along with hearts, traditionally the seat of emotion. Because it was thought that the avian mating season begins in mid-February, birds also became a symbol of the day. Traditional gifts include candy and flowers , particularly red roses , a symbol of beauty and love.

The day is popular in the United States as well as in Britain , Canada , and Australia , and it is also celebrated in other countries, including Argentina , France , Mexico , and South Korea . In the Philippines it is the most common wedding anniversary, and mass weddings of hundreds of couples are not uncommon on that date. The holiday has expanded to expressions of affection among relatives and friends. Many schoolchildren exchange valentines with one another on this day.

How to Write 50+ Paragraphs on St. Valentine's Day+Samples

What Do We Know About the History of the Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day could easily be one of the most celebrated holidays around the world. The 14th of February is the perfect day of the year to express love to our significant others, crushes, friends, and family members in the form of flowers, gifts, chocolates, etc. Exchanging presents, cards, and love letters for the occasion is a fun process, but where do these traditions of Valentine's Day originate from?

There are three variations of the narrative behind the big question of 'Who was the real Saint Valentine?'. According to the Catholic Church, Saint Valentine was a priest in 3rd-century Rome under the reign of Emperor Claudius. He decided that the soldiers in the national army performed better if they remained single rather than married or in a relationship. That is why he forbade marriage for young men. The latter turned out to be unacceptable for Saint Valentine, and he continued to marry young couples under his blessings in secret.

Another version of the story suggests that Valentine used to free Christians from the prisons of Rome, and during his captivity, he sent small notes to his lover, often ending the letter signed as: 'From your Valentine.' That is probably why small letters and notes exchanged annually on the 14th of February are called 'Valentines.'

Even though we do not have the precise backstory after which Valentine we celebrate Valentine's Day, we know for sure that he was heroic. That's because he devoted himself to his object of love, and he might as well have encouraged others to be freely in love even though the 3rd-century Roman legislation did not give him a right to do so.

Since the 14th century, lovers have exchanged 'Valentines' to symbolically celebrate their affection for each other. Whether you have already found your significant other or you're willing to wish 'Happy Valentine's Day' to your crush this 14th of February, we've got you covered with the most heartwarming short Valentine's poems for her or him.

Follow the article for useful tips about how to construct funny Valentine's day messages, Valentine's day wishes, and paragraphs for either your romantic partner, family member or best friend.

Meanwhile, if you're a high-school student looking for samples to write about the history and significance of Valentine's Day, we have already prepared a Valentine's Day essay sample for you! You can just as well use our essay writer platform. Our experts are always ready to craft a perfect essay for you.

Celebrating Valentine's Day Around the World

Time by time Saint Valentine's Day became one of the most celebrated holidays around the world. Many countries worldwide differ in their traditional ways of celebrating and their selection of time frame for Valentine's feast day. Let's look closer at the distinct customs in different places.

Valentine's Day in the USA

Since the 19th century, people around the USA have celebrated Valentine's Day on the 14th of February. When it comes to school students, every one of them makes Valentine's Day wishes for their classmates and teachers. Therefore, Valentine's Day easily becomes the celebration of friendships among young children in elementary and secondary schools. Exchanging cards full of cute Valentine poems and heart-shaped candies, otherwise known as 'conversation hearts,' is an inseparable part of a cute Valentine's Day celebration in the USA. There is no such thing as 'too much candy' when it comes to American Valentine's Day. But a little chocolate and other sweet treats have been a typical way of sending lovely messages to lovers or crushes since the first mass-produced valentines in America.

In the USA, Valentine's Day is to celebrate romantic love and show adoration to family members, best friends, and, most importantly, dear parents. Americans usually express their gratitude and love towards them through small Valentine's day messages saying 'Happy Valentine's Day to the best mom in the world,' 'Happy Valentine's to the most caring grandma,' etc.

You can express love and devotion to your dear ones through gifts such as flowers or jewelry. Spending a romantic holiday at a nice restaurant is also typical for American couples on the 14th of February. Overall, they tend to openly and genuinely appreciate the existence of their beloved on the loveliest day of the year.

Spain's Valentine's Day

Unlike the USA, Spain varies in its way of honoring love since most Spanish people regard Valentine's Day as just another form of consumerism, otherwise known as mass-produced valentines. That is why they avoid buying gifts on Saint Valentine's Day, celebrated on different dates in each city. So, while people in Barcelona celebrate Valentine's on the 23rd of April, others in Valencia do the same on the 9th of October. For all the Spanish people out there, our service has prepared lines of heartfelt valentine paragraphs for April and October, which you can check out below.

Japan's Valentine's Day

Saint Valentine's Day in Japan is not a single occasion. There are two distinct holidays for Japanese men and women to celebrate their love for each other; on the 14th of February, women turn to give gifts to their partners as a romantic symbol, while on the 14th of March, men do the same. However, the 14th of March is not just a regular Valentine's Day type; rather, it is known as the 'White Day,' which means that men prepare gifts dominated by white color for their lovers. So, while you prepare something white for your significant other, make sure to fill your valentine day speech with romantic poems to win the heart of the woman of your dreams.

France's Valentine's Day

French were prone to certain traditions like 'drawing for love' back in the day. People gave themselves the freedom to choose partners based on their preferences by calling out to each other from the windows. There was also a spark of witchcraft in the ancient Valentine's traditions. The lovers did not only express affection towards each other on Valentine's Day but also hatred. Desperate couples burned each others' images on a bonfire if their partners did not turn out as well as expected. Not even the longest Valentine's Day paragraphs could melt their hearts once they feel betrayed or disappointed by their partners. As we see, a typical French love story in the middle ages was full of drama.

Italy's Valentine's Day

Italians perceive the roots of Saint Valentine's Day as Spanish. That is why they ignored the value of gift-giving on Valentine's Day. Nevertheless, present-day Italy is completely different since couples have actively started exchanging typical Valentine's gifts like roses, candy, jewelry, chocolate, etc. It is worth mentioning that chocolate-covered hazelnut, called Baci Perugina, is a unique Italian type of candy for Valentine's Day. It's the type of chocolate reserved for the one and only person who has captivated the hearts of an Italian. So, if an Italian man or woman ever gives you the precious Baci Perugina, know that it's not just a regular type of chocolate. Baci Pergunas represent Valentine's Day in Italy.

Don't forget that our essay writing service has the perfect tools to craft a custom paper for the upcoming Valentine's Day. Meanwhile, you can verify our authors' qualifications by reading our piece on Othello summary .

Rushing to Write a Perfect Essay?

You can use our service to your advantage any time of the day. With our help, you are guaranteed the best possible academic outcome.

Valentine's Cards: How to Greet

A few pointers on how to send heartfelt Valentine's Day greeting cards to your close ones would not be a dumb idea seeing that Valentine's Day is just around the corner. First, make it genuine. Start by reflecting on why this particular individual is important to you. The reasons might include their unique personality and physical characteristics, such as their kind spirit, caring nature, stunning smile, and whatever you find exquisite about that special person. You can even use special valentine's day greeting images to make their day brighter and more creative.

Valentine's Day Paragraphs

Although general tips like the one above may be beneficial, we have also prepared long Valentine's Day paragraphs that you can use to demonstrate how much you value your significant other.

I'm incapable of imagining myself not in love with you. My feelings for you are so fierce that I feel your presence wherever I go, and even when you are not with me, I feel like you are around. You are the soundtrack of my mind; the thought of you never leaves me. My Day begins and ends with you. I go to sleep feeling happy, knowing I will see you in my dreams. I have always wanted you to be my only Valentine, love you loads.

I admire your ability to remain calm in any situation. I admire your compassion and understanding. I never understand how you can be so certain about everything. I've given up figuring out where all that assurance comes from.

You look stunning each day, and your beautiful positive energy attracts me the most. You never fail to make me fall in love and let me see the world through rose-colored glasses.

Even though you are the most unromantic girl I have ever met, and you sometimes struggle with showing off the slightest bit of emotion, I still think that you are the most wonderful treasure I have been living for all this time.

You are the personification of love, and I will not give you up for anything in the world. I adore you and wish you the most romantic Valentine's Day ever.

May those Valentine's Day greeting card messages and paragraphs be the source of inspiration for you to create an ever-lasting impression on your person on the upcoming 14th of February. You can use more than one valentines paragraph to enrich your greeting and your valentine day speeches.

But, as we have already mentioned, this holiday is not only for lovers. If you are willing to project love and appreciation towards your buddies, we have prepared valentines day paragraphs for best friend as well:

You have been my friend through life's storms and uncertainties. We have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly together, and I can't imagine life without you. My dear friend, I love you eternally. Happy Valentine's Day.

I cannot help but think of the Day when our boyfriends will be present, and we will be able to spend Valentine's Day with them. Let's keep having fun together for now. Ladies, Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Poems

Poetry has always been the truest of art forms that allow us to show vulnerability and sentiments in the most emotional moments of our lives. Do you want to make your partner's upcoming Valentine's Day the most memorable? Writing down short valentines poems would project your feelings beautifully. While not everyone might be willing to write a poem themselves, we can still glance through the works of literary geniuses such as Lord Byron, Shakespeare, and Elizabeth Barrett. Their short valentines day poetry will fill you with enormous inspiration.

While it might be hard to describe the depth of love we might have for another person, Elizabeth Barrett has done it beautifully in her poem 'How do I Love Thee?'. Are you trying to be original while expressing your feelings? This cute valentine poem might do the trick for you:

'How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach when feeling out of sight

For the end of Being and ideal Grace.'

Our loved ones are often perceived as the most beautiful creatures from our subjective point of view. Lord Byron caught this very eccentric feature of being in love in his poem 'She Walks in Beauty.' If you are looking for the perfect poem to light up the Day for the woman of your dreams, Byron's masterpiece would be a perfect valentine's poem for her:

Shakespeare, the father of English drama, further described how loving someone gives us a peculiar perception of our romantic partner and the outer world in his 'Sonnet 18'. In Shakespeare's period, it was unusual for women to be expressive regarding their affection for men. Nowadays, it is not the issue. So, you can use this and other sonnets as short Valentine's poems for him:

'Shall I compare thee to a summer's Day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date.'

One of the most prolific English Romantic poets, John Clare, has described the beauty of falling in love for the first time in his poem 'First love.' If you find yourself under the impact of inexplicable sensations while you see your first love walking by, or you feel your heartbeat becoming faster and faster as your daydream about them, you could just as well easily relate to the words of John Clare:

'I ne'er was struck before that hour.

With love so sudden and so sweet,

Her face bloomed like a sweet flower

And stole my heart away completely.'

One of the brightest stars of modern American literature, Langston Hughes, surely has felt the senselessness of time while dancing with his loved one. Writing down lines from his poem, 'Juke Box Love Song,' in your Valentine's day card and taking your loved one out for a dancing night would probably be one of the best ideas for Valentine's Day:

'Take Harlem's heartbeat,

Make a drumbeat,

Put it on a record, let it whirl,

And while we listen to it play,

Dance with you till Day,

Dance with you, my sweet brown Harlem girl.'

Last but not least, Sidney Lanier has stunningly compared the meeting point of the sun, and the sea far on the horizon to the sweet kisses exchanged between her and her lover. If you are willing to break the silence and reveal your attraction to your crush symbolically on Valentine's Day, then Sidney's poem 'Evening Song' will be a perfect fit for your Valentine's Card:

'Look off, dear love, across the sallow sands,

And mark yon meeting of the sun and sea;

How long they kiss in sight of all the lands,

Ah! longer, longer we.'

Valentines Day Essay Sample

If the ideas mentioned above for Valentine's cards are insufficient and you have also been assigned to write an essay about the history valentine's day cards, or the holiday overall and its importance, we've got you covered! Using the information from the essay in your valentines speech would be just as impressive. If the following example does not meet your requirements, you can always buy essay where our writers can provide you with full service.

Final Thoughts

Since you made it to the article's final section, you have probably set your heart to making the upcoming holiday most memorable for your loved one with our paragraphs for valentines day. Know that our writers are always willing to construct the perfect valentines day essay for you at any time of the Day! Simply order essay online , lay back, and wait for the grade carelessly.

And if you've been assigned to write a definition essay on any topic, you can peacefully browse through our definition essay topics . We believe that our constructed tips will be helpful for you.

Want to Invoke a Writer in You For the Upcoming Valentine's Day?

We are happy to offer you our custom writing service with the experts crafting an ideal essay for you.

is an expert in nursing and healthcare, with a strong background in history, law, and literature. Holding advanced degrees in nursing and public health, his analytical approach and comprehensive knowledge help students navigate complex topics. On EssayPro blog, Adam provides insightful articles on everything from historical analysis to the intricacies of healthcare policies. In his downtime, he enjoys historical documentaries and volunteering at local clinics.

Search Please fill out this field.
Manage Your Subscription
Give a Gift Subscription
Newsletters
Sweepstakes
Holidays & Entertaining
Valentine's Day

The History of Valentine's Day, and Why We Celebrate

Valentine’s Day may be associated with romance, but the origin of the holiday isn’t exactly romantic. Here’s the history of Valentine’s Day you may not know—plus when Valentine’s Day 2024 is so you can plan.

Haley is a Wisconsin-based creative freelancer and recent graduate. She has worked as an editor, fact checker, and copywriter for various digital and print publications. Her most recent position was in academic publishing as a publicity and marketing assistant for the University of Wisconsin Press

How did Valentine's Day start?
Why is Valentine's Day celebrated on February 14th?
Who was Saint Valentine?
Why do we celebrate Valentine's Day?
What is Galentine's Day, and how is it related to Valentine's Day?
Is Valentine's Day a holiday?
What is the meaning of Valentine's Day?
Valentine's Day fun facts
What are some fun things to do for Valentine's Day?

Whether you love Valentine's Day or hate it, one thing's clear: Valentine's Day history goes way back. And while Valentine's Day is now known for kissing, Valentine's Day gifts, and hard-to-get dinner reservations, the origins of the holiday are far less romantic. Here, the Valentine's Day history that wouldn't make it into a rom-com, featuring a saint, a massacre, and even the sinful nuns of Valentine's Day (seriously!).

When is Valentine’s Day?

First, a quick refresher: Valentine's Day always falls on February 14. Valentine's Day 2024 will be Wednesday, February 14. (But just wait until 2025, when it falls on a Friday!)

At the end of the 5th century, Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day, and since then, February 14th has been a day of celebration—though it was generally more religious than romantic.

How did Valentine’s Day start?

Valentine's Day is a fixed day on the calendar that got lumped into a mid-February holiday on the ancient Roman calendar called Lupercalia—which some historians believe is what led to Valentine's Day being all about love. Lupercalia celebrated fertility, and may have included a ritual in which men and women were paired off by choosing names from a jar. In Ancient Greece, people observed a mid-winter celebration for the marriage of the god Zeus and the goddess Hera.

Why is Valentine's Day celebrated on February 14th?

In general, early Christians often opted to celebrate holidays on days that coincide with existing festivals and celebrations (like Christmas and winter solstice), so they placed Valentine's Day on February 14th, while Lupercalia was celebrated on February 15th.

Who was Saint Valentine? (And what does he have to do with chocolate hearts?)

Natalia Ganelin/Getty Images

Not much, it turns out. St. Valentine's Day was a feast day in the Catholic religion, added to the liturgical calendar around 500 AD. The day was commemorated for martyred saints named—you guessed it—Valentine. Differing legends celebrate three different saints called Valentine or Valentinus, but since very little was known about these men and there were conflicting reports of the St. Valentine Day story, the feast day was removed from the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar in 1969.

But even though not much is known about the real history of the Saint Valentines on whom the holiday is based, the legend of Saint Valentine has several tellings. One legend says that Saint Valentine refused to convert to paganism and was executed by Roman Emperor Claudius II. Prior to his execution, he was able to miraculously heal the daughter of his jailer, who then converted to Christianity along with his family. Another legend says a bishop called Saint Valentine of Terni is the true namesake of the holiday; this Saint Valentine was also executed.

But according to others—and this is how Saint Valentine became affiliated with a love-focused holiday—Saint Valentine was a Roman priest who performed weddings for soldiers forbidden to marry, because of a Roman emperor's edict decreeing married soldiers did not make good warriors and thus young men could not marry. This Saint Valentine wore a ring with a Cupid on it—a symbol of love—that helped soldiers recognize him. And, in a precursor to greeting cards, he handed out paper hearts to remind Christians of their love for God.

Because of this legend, Saint Valentine became known as the patron saint of love. The Saint Valentine prayer asks Saint Valentine to connect lovers together, so that two become one, and the couple remembers their devotion to God.

While the Saint Valentine story set the groundwork for establishing the day as a holiday for romantic love, what truly solidified the connection between Saint Valentine and love was a poem by medieval author Geoffrey Chaucer in 1375, which historians consider the origin of the "modern" celebration of Valentine's Day, where we celebrate our romantic partnership with one other person.

Why do we celebrate Valentine’s Day?

Chaucer lived in the Middle Ages, the era of courtly love, when broad, romantic statements of devotion—poems, songs, paintings—celebrated partnership. By the end of the 15th century, the word "valentine" was being used to describe a lover in poems and songs of the day, and in the 18th century, a book called The Young Man's Valentine Writer was published in England. By the mid-19th century, mass-produced paper Valentine's Cards were being created (though DIY Valentine's card ideas are still worth trying), and Valentine's Day as we know it was born.

The truth about Valentine's Day history is that the romantic holiday isn't immune to tragedy. During Prohibition in Chicago, seven men were killed by a gang organized by Al Capone on Feb. 14, 1929. The Valentine's Day Massacre became a flashpoint in Prohibition history, with police and lawmakers going after the gangs and mobs that had formed in cities to control then-illegal substances like alcohol.

What is Galentine's Day, and how is it related to Valentine's Day?

A modern (and fun!) take on Valentine's Day, Galentine's Day has been a recent addition to Valentine's Day history. It seems to have been popularized by Amy Poehler's character Leslie Knope on Parks and Recreation. It's a day to celebrate the friends that you love. It's celebrated on February 13 (leaving you plenty of time to celebrate your mate on official Valentine's Day the following day). Galentine's Day gifts have become a nice way to celebrate the people who mean so much to you.

Is Valentine's Day a holiday?

While many people celebrate Valentine's Day in all kinds of different ways, it's no longer an official Catholic holiday—and unfortunately for all the romantics out there, it's not an official bank holiday or day off (though you can always take the day off for a special day with your significant other!).

What is the meaning of Valentine’s Day?

Over the years (and centuries), Valentine's Day has been a religious celebration, an ancient ritual day, and a commercial holiday. All that change means the meaning of Valentine's Day is truly whatever you want it to be: You can skip the celebrations completely, buy yourself some chocolate or flowers, or express your love and appreciation for the people in your life, whether they're co-workers, romantic partners, friends, or family members.

Valentine's Day fun facts

Want to impress your friends and family with your Valentine's Day knowledge (or just win your Valentine's Day trivia contest at the local pub)? Check out these Valentine's Day fun facts:

• The average Valentine's Day gift giver spends nearly $200 on Valentine's Day gifts and goodies—for about $26 billion overall.

• While most people send out nice messages for the holiday, Victorian-era folks sometimes used valentines to turn down a suitor, called a vinegar valentine.

• More than 250 million roses are produced for Valentine's Day—with red roses making up nearly two-thirds of that number.

Liliboas/Getty Images

• Valentine's Day is one of the most popular days to propose. (In fact, if you got engaged between December and February, you're in the zone when the most proposals happen.)

• The color red and the heart shape first started showing up in medieval art during the 14th and 15th century.

• If you don't make a big deal about Valentine's Day, you're not alone. A YouGov survey found that only 30% of Americans thought it was a real special occasion—with most people liking holidays like New Year's Eve, Halloween, Labor Day, and Memorial Day more than the day of love.

What are some fun things to do for Valentine's Day?

You can celebrate the day of love however you want—even if it's just through self-love. Some ideas that could inspire you:

• Plan a nice dinner out

• Watch a romantic movie (at the theater or cozy at home)

• Cook up a fancy romantic meal at home (or just a great Valentine's Day dessert )

• Host a Valentine's Day party

• Do some fun Valentine's crafts with your family

• Curl up with a steamy romance novel

• Write your mate a love letter (and don't forget to include a love quote or two!)

• Opt for some very flattering candlelight (with a few of our favorite romantic candles )

• Indulge in a relaxing bath (for one or two!)

National Retail Federation. Consumers plan to Increase Valentine’s Day spending to nearly $26 billion .

Society of American Florists. Valentine's Day floral statistics .

YouGov. Valentine’s Day ranks behind just about every major holiday among Americans . 2022.

History Classics
Your Profile
Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window)
Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window)
Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window)
This Day In History
History Podcasts
History Vault

History of Valentine’s Day

By: History.com Editors

Updated: February 14, 2024 | Original: December 22, 2009

Valentine’s Day is a holiday celebrated every February 14; this year Valentine's Day falls on a Wednesday. Across the United States and in other places around the world, candy, flowers and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine.

But who is this mysterious saint and where did these traditions come from? Find out about the meaning and history of Valentine’s Day, from the ancient Roman ritual of Lupercalia that welcomed spring to the card-giving customs of Victorian England.

The Legend of St. Valentine

The history of Valentine's Day—and the story of its patron saint—is shrouded in mystery. We do know that February has long been celebrated as a month of romance, and that St. Valentine’s Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. But who was Saint Valentine, and how did he become associated with this ancient rite?

The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Still others insist that it was Saint Valentine of Terni, a bishop, who was the true namesake of the holiday. He, too, was beheaded by Claudius II outside Rome.

Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first “valentine” greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl—possibly his jailor’s daughter—who visited him during his confinement.

Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter signed “From your Valentine,” an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories all emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic and—most importantly—romantic figure. By the Middle Ages , perhaps thanks to this reputation, Valentine would become one of the most popular saints in England and France.

Origins of Valentine’s Day: A Pagan Festival in February

While some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial—which probably occurred around A.D. 270—others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to “Christianize” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia . Celebrated at the ides of February, or February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.

To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at a sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. They would then strip the goat’s hide into strips, dip them into the sacrificial blood and take to the streets, gently slapping both women and crop fields with the goat hide.

Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed the touch of the hides because it was believed to make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city’s bachelors would each choose a name and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage.

Valentine's Day Meaning: A Day of Romance and Love

Lupercalia survived the initial rise of Christianity but was outlawed—as it was deemed “un-Christian”—at the end of the 5th century, when Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine’s Day. It was not until much later, however, that the day became definitively associated with love.

During the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of Valentine’s Day should be a day for romance. The English poet Geoffrey Chaucer was the first to record St. Valentine’s Day as a day of romantic celebration in his 1375 poem “Parliament of Foules,” writing, “For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day / Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.”

Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages, though written Valentine’s didn’t begin to appear until after 1400. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt . (The greeting is now part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England.) Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.

Who Is Cupid?

Cupid is often portrayed on Valentine’s Day cards as a naked cherub launching arrows of love at unsuspecting lovers. But the Roman God Cupid has his roots in Greek mythology as the Greek god of love, Eros. Accounts of his birth vary; some say he is the son of Nyx and Erebus; others, of Aphrodite and Ares; still others suggest he is the son of Iris and Zephyrus or even Aphrodite and Zeus (who would have been both his father and grandfather).

According to the Greek Archaic poets, Eros was a handsome immortal played with the emotions of Gods and men, using golden arrows to incite love and leaden ones to sow aversion. It wasn’t until the Hellenistic period that he began to be portrayed as the mischievous, chubby child he’d become on Valentine’s Day cards.

Valentine’s Day Greetings and Gifts

In addition to the United States, Valentine’s Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France and Australia. In Great Britain, Valentine’s Day began to be popularly celebrated around the 17th century.

By the middle of the 18th, it was common for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes, and by 1900 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.

Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began selling the first mass-produced valentines in America. Howland, known as the “Mother of the Valentine,” made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as “scrap.”

Today, according to Hallmark, an estimated 145 million Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year, making Valentine’s Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year (more cards are sent at Christmas ).

6 Surprising Facts About St. Valentine

Who was St. Valentine, and why do we celebrate him on February 14? Get the facts about this enigmatic character.

7 Unique Valentine’s Day Traditions

Chocolates and roses are common ways to mark Valentine's Day, but there are other, lesser‑known traditions to commemorate the holiday.

Victorian‑Era ‘Vinegar’ Valentines Could Be Mean and Hostile

Rather than expressing love and affection, these cards were designed to offend.

Sign up for Inside History

Get HISTORY’s most fascinating stories delivered to your inbox three times a week.

By submitting your information, you agree to receive emails from HISTORY and A+E Networks. You can opt out at any time. You must be 16 years or older and a resident of the United States.

More details : Privacy Notice | Terms of Use | Contact Us

The Mysterious History of the Real Saint Behind Valentine’s Day

N owadays, the premise of Valentine’s Day is simple to understand: Feb. 14 is a time to show appreciation for friends, families, significant others and anyone else you might love. Pinpointing the story of its namesake Saint Valentine, however, is more difficult.

There are multiple legends of Saint Valentine, and different reliquaries in the Czech Republic, Ireland, Scotland, England and France all claim to have bones attributed to a Saint Valentine.

While Catholics believe that Feb. 14 commemorates the martyrdom of Saint Valentine, who was a Roman priest beheaded in the third century, no one can agree on exactly what he did or why he was executed. Some legends say Valentine was a bishop in Terni, Italy, who healed the sick, including the blind daughter of a prison guard whom he met while in jail for practicing Christianity in a pagan world. Some say he was sentenced to death because he tried to convert Emperor Claudius to Christianity. Others say the sentence came because he was caught secretly performing weddings, defying a ban on marriage that had been imposed by the Emperor as a solution to a military recruitment crunch.

The feast day’s earliest associations with love and fertility may have been inherited from the pagan festival of Lupercalia, which was celebrated by the ancient Romans between Feb. 13 and Feb. 15. A matchmaking lottery would pair men and women up for the duration of the festival, and the men would slap women with the hides of goats and dogs they had sacrificed, which was thought to make the women fertile, historian Noel Lenski has told NPR . It’s thought that Pope Gelasius I established the feast of Saint Valentine in the fifth century to “Christianize” the festival.

But Saint Valentine’s feast day didn’t used to be a big to-do — which should please those who think too much is being made of it now.

“Valentine was not one of the more important saints venerated by medieval people — nor was his feast one of the 40 to 50 festa ferianda , or celebratory festivals, which required people to abstain from work in order to fast and attend mass,” Sarah Peverley, a professor of English at the University of Liverpool, explained in a piece for The Conversation . Plus, the holiday fell right in the middle of a run of much bigger holidays, such as Candlemas on Feb. 2, as well as the carnivals leading up to the Shrove Tuesday and the beginning of the Lenten fast season, which often fall around the same time. (Valentine’s Day in 2018, for example, fell on the same day as Ash Wednesday .)

That began to change in the Middle Ages. It’s believed to be around that time, as notions of courtly love gained influence in Europe, that some celebrants found a more cheerful way of explaining why Saint Valentine’s feast day should be a time to think about romance. Poets, most famously Geoffrey Chaucer in his 14th-century “Parliament of Fowls,” were the ones who put it together that the day fell right around the time of year when birds would sing their mating songs to get ready for the spring. He wrote , per one translation, “For this was on Saint Valentine’s day / When every bird cometh there to chose his mate.” A February 1477 letter in which Margery Brews of Norfolk, England, called her fiancé John Paston “my right well-beloved valentine” is considered the oldest known Valentine written in English (and is now housed at the British Library).

Such romantic phrases and images started appearing on greeting cards once the industrial revolution in the mid-19th century enabled the production of mass quantities of affordable consumer goods. Cadbury’s heart-shaped boxes of chocolates appeared in the 1860s, Hershey’s Kisses in 1907, and Hallmark Valentine’s Day cards in 1913 — all of which have remained Valentine’s Day traditions.

And the enthusiasm has shown no signs of flagging, even if the story of Saint Valentine is not exactly well-known. This year, the National Retail Foundation predicts that U.S. consumers will spend $19.6 billion on Valentine’s Day celebrations, just shy of the record of $19.7 billion spent in 2016.

More Must-Reads from TIME

The Reintroduction of Kamala Harris
IVF Changed America . But Its Future Is Under Threat
The 7 States That Will Decide the Election
Inside Sam Bankman-Fried's Siege of D.C.
Do You Really Store Stress in Your Body?
The Rise of a New Kind of Parenting Guru
The 50 Best Romance Novels to Read Right Now
Can Food Really Change Your Hormones?

Write to Olivia B. Waxman at [email protected]

Valentine’s Day Essay

For some people, the day is all about being with their loved ones and enjoying quality time together. Many couples go out on a romantic date, while some prefer to stay at home and cook a special meal for their partner. Others might choose to spend time outdoors, perhaps going for a walk in the park or even taking a trip to see the sights. Whatever people choose to do, the aim is generally the same – to let their loved ones know just how much they mean to them.

The word “Valentine” has two meanings. It may be a card delivered or given to a sweetheart on St. Valentine’s Day. It can also refer to any person, especially a sweetheart, who is chosen to receive a greeting on St. Valentine’s Day. The idea behind the phrase dates back to an era long ago when the Roman Empire was at risk of crumbling from all sides and required brave soldiers willing to lay down their lives for the motherland.

Under such a system, it was difficult for young men to find wives and raise families. The Emperor Claudius II, in an attempt to maintain peace and increase the size of his army, issued an edict forbidding marriage among his soldiers.

To export a reference to this essay please select a referencing style below:

Related essays:

Home — Essay Samples — Life — Holidays — Valentines Day

Essays on Valentines Day

A sad event on a valentines day, valentine's day week list, made-to-order essay as fast as you need it.

Each essay is customized to cater to your unique preferences

+ experts online

Melinda’s Recollections Valentine Days

Love horoscope and ideal zodiac gifts, valentine’s day gift ideas, valentine's day gift ideas , let us write you an essay from scratch.

450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Fun Ideas for Single Girls on Valentine's Day

Celebrating valentine's day-a day late, finding a date for valentine's day, an analysis of the narrative in the movie valentine's day, get a personalized essay in under 3 hours.

Expert-written essays crafted with your exact needs in mind

Roses for Valentine’s Day Delivery

Reclaiming the meaning of valentine's day, relevant topics.

Winter Break
Thanksgiving
Chinese New Year
Columbus Day
Cinco De Mayo
Holi Festival
4Th of July

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

Instructions Followed To The Letter
Deadlines Met At Every Stage
Unique And Plagiarism Free

Short Essay about Valentine’s Day 2020

Valentine’s Day is a day to celebrate love. It is celebrated every year on 14th of February. It is mainly celebrated in United States of America, United Kingdom, France, Canada, Mexico, Italy, Denmark and Australia.

Valentine’s Day is mostly considered as an international festival celebrating the feeling of love. More than just being a day for the lovers, the day holds bigger importance. It is a day to show and express our love to anyone. When we love our parents, we fail to express it sometime. So, the day is a chance to express our love for our parents, for our family members, and for our friends and closed ones.

Table of Contents

Question on Valentine’s Day

Why is valentine’s day celebrated.

St. Valentine’s birthday is celebrated as a festival to romantic love, friendship and admiration.

Is Valentine’s Day just for couples?

When did valentine’s day originate.

people believe that Valentine’s Day began in Rome in fifth century. The day holds a strong and exciting historical importance. Besides that, every year we celebrate this day by showing the people around us how much we love and care for them.

When is Valentine’s Day 2020?

Valentine’s Day: How Did It Start and Become Popular in the U.S.?

Two people walk through Times Square with a heartshaped balloon for Valentine's day on February 14 2021 in New York Cit

The origins of Valentine’s Day are pretty obscure. While scholars generally agree that the holiday was popularized in the 1840s in the U.K. and U.S., the specific historical roots of the celebration remain ambiguous. Some say it began with the Roman pagan festival Lupercalia, a fertility festival from February 13-15 involving animal sacrifice, ritualized sex play, and general debauchery. Others point to Roman emperor Claudius II’s execution of several men named Valentine on February 14, one of whom later became a martyr in the Christian faith. Fast forward several centuries and the holiday shows up again in the Middle Ages, with Chaucer’s poem “Parliament of Fowls” (referring to the mating pattern of birds in early spring), and later in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, which alludes to lucky lovers meeting on St. Valentine’s Day. But how do a pagan fertility festival, a Christian martyr, and English poetry connect with this now ubiquitous, commercialized celebration of love?

Elizabeth White Nelson, an associate professor of history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas , and author of Market Sentiments : Middle-Class Market Culture in 19th-Century America , says those origin stories were popularized in the 19th century to give the holiday a historical grounding, particularly as a counterpoint to society’s fears about its commercialization. “We’re always looking for the origins of things, but we attach that mention in Chaucer to the current history of Valentine’s Day because [people were specifically] looking for origins [in the 19th century] — not necessarily because there’s a consistent celebration over that period of time,” explains Nelson, whose research focuses on consumerism surrounding holidays.

“Saints’ days are often merged with pagan holidays…, so it’s very possible that Lupercalia turns into another fertility holiday that somehow gets associated with St. Valentine, and over a period of time, all those associations stay connected and mean something to people. But," Nelson adds, "I don’t know of anyone who has gone back to that early period of Christian history and really affirmed that story, so I’m a little skeptical whether it’s true. It serves a purpose, rather than being verifiable.”

Ambiguous origins aside, Valentine's Day exploded in U.S. popular culture beginning in the 1840s, although it was confined to a very specific idea of romantic love. According to Nelson, exchanging gifts, particularly spoons and gloves, became a way for heteronormative couples to convey a sense of permanence with their beloved, and, traditionally, they remained each other's Valentine for the entire year. “People both embrace Valentine’s Day as an example of courtly love and the idea of love as transcending a prosaic economic relationship of marriage," says Nelson. "There are all these nostalgic histories of Valentine’s Day in this period of popular literature that invent historical stories of [the holiday] that aren’t necessarily accurate. They get recycled; the same story of courtly love and the ways in which this is the ideal form of love.” But questions about the holiday also circulated back then, as its commercialization bothered even those early celebrators.

The Rise in Popularity of the Valentine’s Day Card

In 1850, Esther Howland, the daughter of a prosperous stationer from Worcestor, Massachusetts, began one of the first mass-produced Valentine’s Day card businesses in the U.S. These initial Valentines were rectangular in shape, assembled with fancy lace, and often featured poems, cherubs, heart motifs, birds, flowers, and other imagery commonly associated with the holiday today. The “ mother of the American Valentine ” never married, even as her cards became a commercial success.

At the same time, there was pushback in popular literature against buying these pricey, assembled Valentine’s cards. “Sarah Hale, the editor of Godey's Lady's Book , a popular women’s magazine [with] a fairly conservative voice, pushes back on this idea that the sincere way to celebrate is to buy one of these expensive Valentine’s Day cards — and other people say this too,” Nelson explains. According to established heteronormative roles at the time, a husband wasting his hard-earned cash on something as trivial as a fancy paper card was not a good sign for the marital road ahead.

“For the most part, married women are not expected to work (in the middle classes, at least)…, so the ‘ideal’ is that you’re marrying someone who can support you,” Nelson continues. “It coincides with a shift with middle-class families in the U.S. in patterns of courtship and the ideas of what marriage should be — and romantic love is actually a positive part of courtship rather than a dangerous part. Before this period, it’s the father who decides who gets married among his daughters. Romantic love and companionate marriage sort of shift that towards the idea that daughters might at least have a role in choosing for themselves.”

Victorian era handcut Saint Valentines Day card white and pink paper 1890.

A hand-cut Victorian Valentine from the 1890s

There were also concerns about anonymous Valentines (“Is it a good sign? Is that person sincere? Is it dangerous? A lot of popular fiction explores that,” notes Nelson) or whether the holiday represents sincere or long-lasting love at all. “Whether it is frivolous is embedded in the commercial celebration of it from the very beginning,” Nelson says. So the need to justify the holiday and anchor its roots in something historically meaningful becomes a way to address this criticism. But skepticism over the holiday — whether it is overdone and too commercialized — didn’t stop its growing popularity.

The Influence of Mass-Marketing and Advertising on Valentine’s Day

The holiday continued to evolve from the 19th century on, becoming more of a technological and marketing story. Chromolithography, a method for making multicolor prints, made the mass-production of Valentine’s Day cards even easier. This, coupled with the advertising boom of the early 20th century, eventually paved the way for large companies like Hallmark to dominate the preexisting market for Valentine’s Day cards.

Angeline Close Scheinbaum, an associate professor of marketing at Clemson University , who has frequently written about consumer behavioral patterns around Valentine’s Day, makes the counterintuitive point that companies like Hallmark have actually helped broaden our notions of love and allowed for more inclusivity in celebrations, particularly in recent years. “One of the takeaways of my research is that marketers have an opportunity to expand the notion of love and to expand the way that this holiday is depicted," says Scheinbaum. "And in doing so, it will help the large subset of consumers who’ve admitted that they feel isolated or excluded — and it helps with sales.”

During her 15 years of research, consumers admitted they simply didn’t feel included in the holiday, as if it were a party and they didn’t get an invitation. There’s also something to be said of the emotional turmoil that can accompany the holiday, especially feelings of loneliness, depression, and isolation. For some, Valentine’s Day can feel tortuous, and statistics have shown an annual rise in severe mental health crises around the day.

Cupid pushing a wheelbarrow full of blue flowers and a giant red heart. Circa 1908.

But unlike the Victorian Era, with its focus on heteronormative ideas of coupledom and romance, inclusivity for Valentine’s Day celebrations has drastically expanded in recent years. “Understanding this little-understood fact that love is broad — it’s not just romantic love — is a huge part of the market,” Scheinbaum says. “From a human being point of view, inclusion is important, but also from a business and marketing point of view. It’s called market expansion, and Hallmark is brilliant at doing this with some of their advertising for the holiday. Only depicting romantic love and card exchange would be totally excluding all these other types of love, [like] children exchanging little cards or giving teachers cards, or women giving each other friendship cards, or people bringing colleagues or coworkers cards,” she explains. Plus, card brands such as Hallmark help consumers express their affections in ways that not everyone can articulate through their own writing.

As cliche as it may sound, Valentine’s Day has always been my favorite holiday. Every year, to this day, my mother has gifted me a thoughtful card and beautifully wrapped little trinkets. Gift giving became a part of her love language as a working single mother with limited free time; a way to express affection in a tangible form. So, capitalist materialism aside, gifting small tokens of affection was integrated in my love language too.

Scheinbaum notes, however, that some consumers are turned off by the overt materialism of the holiday. “We have seen evidence of what I call ‘ market resistance ,’ where consumers consciously opt out of entire broad markets because of personal reasons, such as wanting to be more anti-materialism or they want to celebrate the holiday in less commercialized ways,” she says. Examples include couples gifting each other “anti-gift certificates,” deciding to stay home and celebrate together without buying material goods. “It’s not that they’re anti-Valentine’s Day, it’s that they’re making a conscious decision to be counterculture when it comes to [the holiday], with sustainable ideas such as making your own Valentine’s Day card.”

Abigail Baehr, chief strategy officer for the ad agency Crispin Porter Bogusky, also highlights the surprising role of commercialism and marketing as a catalyst for more inclusivity surrounding the holiday. “In the 1980s in the U.S., when Hallmark flipped from sending one Valentine to the person you love to turning it into something that was more competitive — like, how many Valentines you received — was an interesting [change],” says Baehr.

I remember this competitiveness firsthand. When I was in grade school in the '90s, the more Valentines a person received, the cooler they were. By the time high school came around, special class deliveries of gifts, stuffed animals, balloons, and cards were made throughout the school day, and if the Valentine contained an anonymous gift from an admirer, it meant you were coveted and desirable. It became a kind of social currency.

That sense of competitiveness led to what Baehr calls a “broadening of the aperture” of how the day is seen and celebrated. “Advertising is always a mirror of culture. Without being massively cliche, the 1980s was all about excess, what you could get, competition, hedonism…. And Hallmark used an opportunity where everyone was trying to compete and drive a notion of individual exceptionalism and apply it to the Valentine’s Day paradigm,” she says.

While the Victorian celebrations revolved around cishet, normative relationships and traditional ideas of betrothal, today we have a much wider scope of notions of love and how we celebrate our affections for one another. People celebrate with their children, pets, friends, teachers, and more. “It’s a much more healthy way to spend the day that should be about reflecting and sharing and celebrating your love for people," says Baehr, "rather than trying to put them into a singular binary narrative.”

So does this mean the over-the-top, capitalistically fueled, often cringeworthy aspects of the holiday are a positive thing? No, of course not. Most people would agree that we shouldn’t only celebrate love once a year, nor feel pressure to buy anything to show our affections. But creating awareness that true love is for everyone — and that it shows up in a myriad of forms — is definitely something to celebrate.

Want more from Teen Vogue ? Check this out: Where Your Valentine’s Day Roses Really Come From

Stay up-to-date with the politics team. Sign up for the Teen Vogue Take

It’s Actually Fine to Joke About the Most Powerful People in the Country

Paragraph on Valentine’s Day

Each year on 14 th February, Valentine’s Day is celebrated as the day for expressing love towards our near-dear ones. In the memory of ‘Saint Valentine’, Valentine’s Day is celebrated. For a better understanding of readers, we have created some important paragraphs elaborating on the history, origin, celebration and other important facts about Valentine’s Day. Kindly go through it.

Short and Long Paragraphs on Valentine’s Day

Paragraph 1 – 100 words.

Valentine’s Day is said as the day for showing love, affection, and care towards our loved ones. It is universally accepted as the day for expressing love. On this day people exchange cards, gifts, flowers and other symbols for telling their feelings to their loved ones. On 14th February of every year, Valentine’s Day is celebrated.

Love is an eternal feeling and for celebrating this feeling Valentine’s Day is made. The spring season falls in the month of February; it brings joy to every face. The mixture of fresh spring breeze with love refills the joy of celebrating Valentine’s Day with zeal. In the contemporary world, the week before the 14th of February is called ‘Valentine’s Week’.

Paragraph 2 – 120 Words

Valentine’s Day is the joy of conveying love and affection to lovers and all our near-dear ones. In the 3rd Century in Rome, there was a catholic saint named ‘Saint Valentine’. He was blamed to arrange secret marriages for Roman soldiers and he was also blamed for converting them into Christianity.

One day Emperor Claudius-II (King of Roman Empire) find saint’s act and imprisoned him. He sentenced death to St. Valentine. During his imprisonment period, Saint Valentine fell in love with the jailor’s blind daughter. Some sources say that he cured her blindness by his selfless love towards her. On 14th February, 270 AD Saint hanged to death and before that he wrote a letter to jailor’s daughter.

He mentioned his identity as ‘Yours Valentine’ in the letter. This salutation became famous and in the loving memory of saint’s love and his noble acts, universally 14th February was declared as ‘Valentine’s Day’.

Paragraph 3 – 150 Words

Valentine’s Day can be said as a symbol of love. The bond between two people is celebrated on this day. On the eve of Valentine’s Day people represent cards, chocolates, and flowers to their loved ones.

The week before 14th February is celebrated as Valentine Week. Each day carries its specialty. The days are sequenced by Rose Day, Propose Day, Chocolate Day, Teddy Day, Kiss Day and Hug Day. These days are also a source of inspiration for poets and authors.

Various love quotes depict the glory of love, bonding and eternal peace drawn out of love. Valentine’s Day is also bliss for commercial purposes. Millions of Love Cards sell each year on the occasion of Valentine’s Day.

The love Cards are taken as a medium for bringing joy on the faces. The trend of presenting cards is quite old. In the 18th century in England, the custom of gifting on Valentine’s Day became quite popular. People, in those days, started representing cards and chocolates to their loved ones.

Paragraph 4 – 200 Words

Valentine’s Day tells the bonding and emotions one feels about their lovers, partners, and their loved ones. Let’s have look at some important and interesting facts on Valentine’s Day:

In the United States, billions of Valentine’s Day Cards sold yearly.
The trend of presenting chocolates to their loved ones leads to the high demand for chocolates in Valentine’s week.
On 14 th February 1800, Richard Cadbury introduced chocolates to the world.
There are various varieties of chocolates especially made for Valentine’s Day.
Heart-Shaped Chocolates are considered as the symbol of love and generally, it’s purchased on Chocolate Day.
In Finland, Valentine’s Day is celebrated as ‘Friendship Day’.
Valentine’s Day is mostly celebrated in Christian Countries.
There is no official holiday declared by the government on this day but people celebrate it by arranging meals with their loved ones.
In India, few communities are totally against the concept of Valentine’s Day they considered as a way to westernization.
But the celebration of Valentine’s Day in India is becoming popular day by day.
In a survey it is found that gift shops, flower shops are making good business in the season of love.
In Rome, the celebration of Valentine’s Day takes place on a huge level; people worship the goddess of love in Roman Catholic mythology.

Paragraph 4 – 250 Words

Valentine’s Day is a festival dedicated to love. We often heard that love doesn’t need a particular day to be celebrated. But Valentine’s Day is made for remembering the togetherness and attachments to our loved ones. Valentines’ Day is followed by Valentines’ Week and it is the grand fest based on the human emotion called love.

Like other fests, Valentine’s Day is also carrying a special history. Commonly, it is known as the day in the memory of Saint Valentine. But some sources say that there were many Bishops in Rome who tried to spread love.

In ancient Greece, The mild winter season was celebrated as Valentine’s Day. According to their mythology, this day was considered as the day when God Zeus married to Goddess Hera. Various mythological facts depict different stories upon the origin of Valentine’s Day. Legacy of the fest says that every year zillions of wedding proposals are asked on 14, February.

It is observed that 75% of men purchase Valentine’s Day Card in comparison to women. Valentine’s Day is quite famous in Christian based countries. Around the globe, this fest is quite popular in America, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Argentina, the Philippines, etc. In the Philippines, mass weddings are organized on this day.

This occasion rejuvenates their bonding. The concept of gifting roses and chocolates is scientifically related to the heart. These mediums of expressing love are considered as the best medium to represent their loving ones. There are various Valentine’s Day celebration ideas:

Dinner plan with a partner
Outing with loving one
Watching a movie with your partner
Plan a long trip with your partner

FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions

Ans. Valentine’s Day is celebrated on the 14th of February.

Ans. Valentine’s Day is celebrated in memory of Saint Valentine.

Ans. Valentine’s week is a festival related to Valentine’s Day.

Ans. People offer cards, flowers and cakes to near and dear ones.

Paragraph on moral values, paragraph on republic day of india 2023, paragraph on national festivals of india, paragraph on national flag of india, paragraph on importance of republic day of india, paragraph on education, paragraph on my best friend, paragraph on zoo, paragraph on diwali.

Share full article

Supported by

Valentine’s Day Across the Curriculum: Exploring the History, Literature, Economics, Science, Math and Psychology of Love and Romance

By Katherine Schulten

Feb. 13, 2019

Updated: Feb., 2020

Is there a place for love and romance — or, at least, reading, writing and research about academic aspects of it — in your classroom?

Try some of our ideas, below, though make sure to first preview the Times articles linked from each to determine their appropriateness for your students.

We’d also be delighted to hear what you do (or don’t do!) to mark this holiday in your classroom; please leave a note in the comments.

Language Arts

Write Personal Essays, Stories and Poems about Relationships

— In this article ten New Yorkers tell short personal stories of love and enchantment in the City. In this piece , people share stories of breakups and bad dates. Use these stories or the weekly Modern Love column — in which essayists write about relationships with romantic partners, family members, friends or even beloved animals — as inspiration for your own essays, stories and poems. And if the longer essays are too challenging as models, try the “ Tiny Love Stories, ” each no more than 100 words. What would yours say?

— Or, listen to love with the Modern Love podcast — and find a Reader Idea about using those podcasts to teach narrative writing . If you get really inspired and want to make your own, consider submitting it to our annual Student Podcast Contest this spring. In 2018 one of our winning teams was a teenage couple, Quinn Page and Bailey Osborne, who explored the question, Should your significant other be your best friend?

— Watch love stories via Modern Love videos, like the one below:

Modern Love | A Kiss, Deferred

A 12-year-old girl’s life and love are shattered by the war in bosnia and herzegovina..

— Use the 21 sentence starters, adapted from Times essays and articles about love and relationships, that we’ve compiled in our Passion Prompts: Sentence Starters for Writing About Relationships to get started on your own fiction or nonfiction piece.

Share Your Thoughts on Love and Romance

Respond to our love-and-romance-related writing prompts . (Please note: those published on our old site are no longer open for comment.)

— How Do You Feel About Valentine’s Day?

— How Much of a Romantic Are You?

— How Do You Think Technology Affects Dating?

— Do You Find It Hard to Say ‘I Love You’?

— Should Your Significant Other Be Your Best Friend?

— What Are the Basic ‘Rules’ for Handling Breakups?

— What’s the Best Way to Heal a Broken Heart?

— How Important Do You Think It Is to Marry Someone With the Same Religion?

— Is Dating a Thing of the Past?

— Is Hookup Culture Leaving Your Generation Unhappy and Unprepared for Love?

— Could Following These Directions Make You Fall in Love With a Stranger?

— Have You Ever Been in Love?

— Have you ever imagined your own wedding?

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

Want all of The Times? Subscribe .

IMAGES

Valentine`s Day Narrative Essay (500 Words)
Happy Valentines Day Essay Example
Valentine's Day Essay
Write English Paragraph on Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day Week List: [Essay Example], 639 words GradesFixer
⇉“Valentine’s Day” by Stuart McLean Sample Essay Example

COMMENTS

Festive China: The romantic story behind China's Valentine's Day
The seventh day of the seventh lunar month is Qixi, widely regarded as China's Valentine's Day. Legend has it that the youngest daughter of the Jade Emperor (the ruler of the world as per the ...
Carina Lau shares photo of her 'little love' on Chinese Valentine's Day
On Qixi Festival, also known as Chinese Valentine's Day, which fell on Saturday (Aug 10), Hong Kong actress Carina Lau shared a series of photos on Instagram featuring herself with a young boy.
Violet Affleck Wore Jennifer Lopez's Valentine's Day Dress
Seemingly reminding the estranged couple of happier times, Violet wore the same tonal pink wrap dress that J.Lo first debuted on a Valentine's Day date with Ben in 2023.
Violet Affleck Wears J. Lo's Valentine's Day Dress From Date With Ben
Ben Affleck's Daughter Violet Wears Stepmom Jennifer Lopez's Valentine's Day Dress. The dress appeared to be the same one that J. Lo wore on a past Valentine's Day date with Ben in 2023.
Maniac accused of stabbing Jewish NYC man held on $100K bail
Vincent Sumpter, who allegedly shouted, "Free Palestine!" before viciously stabbing a Jewish man in the stomach Saturday, has been ordered held on $100,000 cash bail on multiple hate-crime charges.
Digital Publishing Software
Digital Publishing Software | Digital Publishing | PageSuite
Nev Schulman reveals he broke his neck in bike accident
Violet Affleck sports same Dolce & Gabbana dress stepmom Jennifer Lopez once wore on Valentine's Day date with Ben Lindsay Lohan gives off 'goddess' vibes in ethereal gown at Disney's D23 Expo
Halle Berry shows lots of skin in lingerie-inspired sheer ensemble at
Halle Berry is putting her own twist on the LBD. The actress smoldered in a sheer, black ensemble as she walked the red carpet at the Los Angeles premiere of her new Netflix movie, "The Union ...
Violet Affleck sports same dress stepmom Jennifer Lopez once wore on
The breezy, Dolce & Gabbana design was initially worn by the teen's stepmom, Jennifer Lopez, 55, who first rocked the look on a Valentine's Day date in 2023 with the "Argo" actor.
NYPD's Tania Kinsella inspires girls to chase their running dreams
Violet Affleck sports same Dolce & Gabbana dress stepmom Jennifer Lopez once wore on Valentine's Day date with Ben Now on Page Six. Kenya Moore's ex-husband, Marc Daly, claims she is being ...
Researchers Create AI Village Where Bots Plan Valentine's Day Parties
The 25 bots that live there gossip, work, and plan Valentine's Day parties. Kai Xiang Teo. 2023-08-11T06:33:09Z An curved arrow pointing right. Share. The letter F. Facebook. An envelope. ...
Valentine's Day Essay
You can read more Essay Writing about articles, events, people, sports, technology many more. Valentine's Day History. Saint Valentine was an aggregate of 14 holy people who spread out their life for Ancient Rome. In any case, a few groups accept that Valentine's Day is an accolade for just one of these fourteen holy people.
Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day, holiday (February 14) when lovers express their affection with greetings and gifts. Given their similarities, it has been suggested that the holiday has origins in the Roman festival of Lupercalia, held in mid-February.The festival, which celebrated the coming of spring, included fertility rites and the pairing off of women with men by lottery.
How to Write Paragraphs on St Valentine's Day
I adore you and wish you the most romantic Valentine's Day ever. May those Valentine's Day greeting card messages and paragraphs be the source of inspiration for you to create an ever-lasting impression on your person on the upcoming 14th of February.
Valentine's Day: Quotes, Traditions & Ideas
Valentine's Day is a romantic holiday celebrated each year on February 14. Learn about St. Valentine, Valentine's Day quotes and the ancient origins of Valentine's Day.
Valentine's Day History, Origin, Why We Celebrate, and More
Not much, it turns out. St. Valentine's Day was a feast day in the Catholic religion, added to the liturgical calendar around 500 AD. The day was commemorated for martyred saints named—you guessed it—Valentine. Differing legends celebrate three different saints called Valentine or Valentinus, but since very little was known about these men ...
Valentine's Day 2024: Origins, Background & Traditions
Updated: February 14, 2024 | Original: December 22, 2009. Valentine's Day is a holiday celebrated every February 14; this year Valentine's Day falls on a Wednesday. Across the United States and ...
Valentine's Day Meaning: The Real Story of Saint Valentine
But Saint Valentine's feast day didn't used to be a big to-do — which should please those who think too much is being made of it now. "Valentine was not one of the more important saints ...
Valentine's Day Essay Essay on Love
Valentine's Day Essay. Valentine's Day is a special day to celebrate love and affection. For many people, it is a day to express their love for one another. It can also be a day for exchanging gifts, enjoying special meals or treats, or simply spending time together. Whether you are single or in a relationship, spending Valentine's Day ...
Did Valentine's Day Start as a Roman Party or to Celebrate an Execution
The Boston Globe portrayed St. Valentine as a romantic in 1965. According to one popular tale, printed in The Boston Globe in 1965, St. Valentine was arrested after he defied an order by Emperor ...
Essays on Valentines Day
Essays on Valentines Day. Essay examples. Essay topics. 12 essay samples found. Sort & filter. 1 ... Valentine's Day is a widely celebrated holiday in many parts of the world, where people express their love and affection for one another through the exchange of gifts, cards, and romantic gestures. However, the holiday has also been the ...
Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, [1] is celebrated annually on February 14. [2] It originated as a Christian feast day honoring a martyr named Valentine, and through later folk traditions it has also become a significant cultural, religious and commercial celebration of romance and love in many ...
Short Essay about Valentine's Day 2020
Valentine's Day 2020 is on Friday, February 14, 2020. Short Essay about Valentine's Day - Valentine's Day is a day to celebrate love. It is celebrated every year on 14th of February. It is mainly celebrated in United States of America, United Kingdom, France, Canada, Mexico, Italy, Denmark and Australia. People believe that Valentine's ...
What Is the History of Valentine's Day?
Through the exchange of cards and gifts, the "day of love" is celebrated across the world by people from all walks of life. Some say that the history of Valentine's Day can be traced to the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia. Others say it is rooted in the history of Saint Valentine himself. The evidence indicates that the origins of ...
What is a summary of Charles Lamb's essay "Valentine's Day"?
Expert Answers. As the title suggests, this essay is a rumination on Valentine's Day. Lamb, through his persona Elia, opens by differentiating between the St. Valentine for whom Valentine's Day is ...
Valentine's Day: How Did It Start and Become Popular in the U.S.?
Valentine's Day exploded in popular culture beginning in the 1840s. The origins of Valentine's Day are pretty obscure. While scholars generally agree that the holiday was popularized in the ...
11 Valentine's Day Writing Ideas and Activities
11. Create a Valentine's Day Squiggle Drawing and Story. Squiggle stories are a fun, no prep writing idea that 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students love. To write a squiggle story, give students a sheet of paper with a random squiggle on it. They create a Valentine's Day drawing that incorporates that squiggle.
Paragraph on Valentine's Day
Paragraph 3 - 150 Words. Valentine's Day can be said as a symbol of love. The bond between two people is celebrated on this day. On the eve of Valentine's Day people represent cards, chocolates, and flowers to their loved ones. The week before 14th February is celebrated as Valentine Week.
Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day on February 14th is the day where the whole world honors a couple's love, affection between heterosexual couples and friends, they express their love by sending each other valentine cards, roses, chocolates and some special gifts. However, for me as a normal day, normal activities, I still eat, sleep and study on time and ...
Valentine's Day Across the Curriculum: Exploring the History
Write Personal Essays, Stories and Poems about Relationships ... It was created for Valentine's Day by Imaginary, a nonprofit organization in Berlin that designs open-source mathematics programs ...

Festive China: The romantic story behind China's Valentine's Day

HK actress Carina Lau shares photo of her 'little love' on Chinese Valentine's Day – no Tony Leung in sight

Found a mistake in this article?

Fast-track your career with new accounting pathways for students

Trending in Lifestyle

Others Also Read

Thank you for downloading.

Violet Affleck Wore Jennifer Lopez's Dress With a Sentimental Connection to Ben Affleck

Related Articles

Ben Affleck’s Daughter Violet Wears Stepmom Jennifer Lopez’s Valentine’s Day Dress

Recommended

Shop 'til you drop with Post Wanted

Thanks for signing up!

Recommended

Researchers from Stanford and Google have made an entire AI village. The 25 bots that live there gossip, work, and plan Valentine's Day parties.

Watch: What is ChatGPT, and should we be afraid of AI chatbots?

Valentine’s Day Essay | Short Paragraph, Speech and History of Valentine’s day

Valentine’s Day History

Specialty of Valentine’s Day

Short Paragraph on Valentine’s Day

FAQ’s on Valentine’s Day Essay

Who is Valentine’s Day named for?

Valentine’s Day

What is Valentine’s Day?

When is Valentine’s Day?

Where is Valentine’s Day celebrated?

How to Write 50+ Paragraphs on St. Valentine's Day+Samples

What Do We Know About the History of the Valentine's Day

Celebrating Valentine's Day Around the World

Valentine's Day in the USA

Spain's Valentine's Day

Japan's Valentine's Day

France's Valentine's Day

Italy's Valentine's Day

Rushing to Write a Perfect Essay?

Valentine's Cards: How to Greet

Valentine's Day Paragraphs

Valentine's Day Poems

Valentines Day Essay Sample

Final Thoughts

Want to Invoke a Writer in You For the Upcoming Valentine's Day?

The History of Valentine's Day, and Why We Celebrate

When is Valentine’s Day?

How did Valentine’s Day start?

Why is Valentine's Day celebrated on February 14th?

Who was Saint Valentine? (And what does he have to do with chocolate hearts?)

Why do we celebrate Valentine’s Day?

What is Galentine's Day, and how is it related to Valentine's Day?

Is Valentine's Day a holiday?

What is the meaning of Valentine’s Day?

Valentine's Day fun facts

What are some fun things to do for Valentine's Day?

Related Articles

History of Valentine’s Day

The Legend of St. Valentine

Origins of Valentine’s Day: A Pagan Festival in February

Valentine's Day Meaning: A Day of Romance and Love

Who Is Cupid?

Valentine’s Day Greetings and Gifts

6 Surprising Facts About St. Valentine

7 Unique Valentine’s Day Traditions

Victorian‑Era ‘Vinegar’ Valentines Could Be Mean and Hostile

Sign up for Inside History

The Mysterious History of the Real Saint Behind Valentine’s Day

More Must-Reads from TIME

Valentine’s Day Essay

Related essays:

Essays on Valentines Day

Melinda’s Recollections Valentine Days

Fun Ideas for Single Girls on Valentine's Day

Roses for Valentine’s Day Delivery

Short Essay about Valentine’s Day 2020

Question on Valentine’s Day

Is Valentine’s Day just for couples?

Related Posts:

Valentine’s Day: How Did It Start and Become Popular in the U.S.?

Paragraph on Valentine’s Day

Short and Long Paragraphs on Valentine’s Day

Paragraph 2 – 120 Words

Paragraph 3 – 150 Words