10 Fun Facts About Valentine's Day You Need to Know

Liputan6.com, Jakarta - Valentine's Day is one of the most popular holidays in the world. Every year on February 14, millions of people celebrate love and friendship. They give cards, flowers, and chocolates to people they care about. Some people go on romantic dates, while others spend time with friends and family. But do you know the fun facts about Valentine's Day? This special day has a long and interesting history with many surprising stories behind it.

Here are 10 fun facts about Valentine's Day. These facts will help you understand this holiday better and may surprise you!

Many people think Valentine's Day is named after one person. But there were actually two men named St. Valentine! One lived in Rome, and one lived in Terni. Both were killed for their beliefs many years ago. Nobody knows which St. Valentine the holiday celebrates. Maybe it celebrates both of them!

Valentine's Day comes from an old Roman festival called Lupercalia. This festival happened every February 15 in ancient Rome. People celebrated the god of farming and the founders of Rome. The celebration was very different from today's Valentine's Day. It was about making crops grow better, not about romantic love!

Around the year 500, Pope Gelasius I made February 14 a special holiday. He wanted to stop the Roman festival and create a new Christian holiday instead. This was when Valentine's Day officially became a holiday. However, it was not yet about love and romance. That part came later in history!

Valentine's Day became romantic in the Middle Ages. People in the 1300s believed that February 14 was when birds started looking for mates. A famous writer named Chaucer wrote a poem about this in 1375. His poem connected Valentine's Day with love and romance. After that, people started celebrating the day with romantic feelings.

The oldest valentine letter we know about was written in 1415. Charles, Duke of Orleans, wrote it to his wife while he was in prison in London. The letter was a poem that said, "I am already sick of love, My very gentle Valentine." Today, we can still see this letter. It is more than 600 years old!

Many people choose Valentine's Day to ask their partner to marry them. It is one of the most popular days of the year for marriage proposals. The romantic feeling of the day makes it perfect for this special question. Some couples also choose to get married on Valentine's Day. It is a day of love, so many people think it brings good luck!

We call romantic couples "lovebirds," but did you know lovebirds are real? They are small, colorful parrots from Africa. These birds stay with the same partner for their whole life. They sit very close together and show each other love and care. People started calling romantic couples lovebirds because of these sweet birds!

Not everyone has a romantic partner on Valentine's Day, and that is okay! Some people celebrate Quirkyalone Day instead. This day is for people who are happy being single. They celebrate loving themselves and their independence. It happens on February 14, just like Valentine's Day. So everyone can celebrate something special on this day!

Galentine's Day is now not only a thing on TV shows! It started from the TV show "Parks and Recreation" in 2010. Now it is a real celebration that happens on February 13. Women celebrate their female friends with gifts, food, and fun activities. The name mixes "gal" (meaning woman) and "Valentine." It reminds us that friendship is also a kind of love worth celebrating!

The tradition of giving heart-shaped chocolate boxes started in 1861. Richard Cadbury created these special boxes to sell more chocolate. His idea worked very well! Today, people buy 36 million heart-shaped chocolate boxes every Valentine's Day. That is 58 million pounds of chocolate! His clever marketing idea became a tradition that continues today.