Penny Black, the first postage stamp in the world, issued by Great Britain in 1841
Although not an official holiday anywhere, Valentine’s Day is celebrated in more countries around the world than any other holiday. Each February, Valentine’s Day prompts the sale of 36 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate and the exchange of more than one billion cards globally. An additional $2 billion+ will be spent on flowers, which when combined equates to the average person spending approximately $189 on Valentine’s Day each year.
Today, Valentine’s Day has morphed into a day celebrating children, teachers, wives, mothers, and lovers—but it springs from ancient and surprising origins. Andrew Roth, scholar-in-residence at the Jefferson Educational Society in Erie, Pennsylvania, unlocks the hidden stories behind this Hallmark holiday. From its origins in pagan fertility rituals to its transformation into a religious feast, then a secular celebration of romance and erotic love, and finally a holiday for school children, Roth traces the surprising evolution of February 14.
Along the way, he shares fascinating Valentine’s Day facts, such as how the introduction of Britain’s “Penny Black” one-cent postal stamp in 1841 shaped the holiday into one defined by exchanging greeting cards—moving Charles Dickens to dub the burgeoning card industry “Cupid’s Manufactory.” In the United States, Esther Howland perfected the custom as Valentine’s Day became one of 19th-century America’s premier gift-giving days. Roth also reveals how wine, roses, and chocolate came to symbolize one of our most beloved domestic customs and cultural traditions of saying “I love you.”
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