Valentine’s day is all about chocolate, roses, and pretty cards. But how was Valentines Day started?

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 while some believe 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.

The United States isn’t the only country to celebrate Valentines Day, Canada, Mexico, The United Kingdom, France, and Australia.

In Great Britain it started to be popularly celebrated

in the 17 century. In the middle of the 18 century, it was common for friends or lovers of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes, and by 1900 printed cards began to replace the letters.

Americans began exchanging hand made valentines around the early 1700’s, in the early 1840’s Esther A. Howland began selling the first mass produced val- entines in America. Howland, known as “Mother of Valentine,’ made creations known as “scrap.” Today, ac- cording to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated 1 billion Valentines Day cards are sent each year, mak- ing Valentines Day the second greatest card sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent on Christmas.) Women purchase about 85% of all Valentines.

These days girls want the five-foot teddy bear and
a wall built of roses like Kanye gave Kim, but face it ladies, were in high school, your boyfriend just wants to keep his money in his wallet.