How Europe Celebrates Valentine's Day

With Valentine's Day approaching, if you are looking for a new way to celebrate Valentine's Day you might want to see how the Europeans celebrate Valentine's Day. Some are similar to us, others are unique.

Similar To The U.S. Valentine's Day Traditions

Many countries in Europe celebrate Valentine's Day in a manner that is very similar to how we celebrate in the United States. Germany and Spain are very similar to the U.S. celebration of Valentine's Day as lovers there celebrate by exchanging gifts, chocolates, roses and other flowers. In Austria flowers are exchanged among lovers.

France and Britain both tend to be slightly less materialistic in their celebrations of Valentine's Day. Lovers in Britain spend the weeks leading up to Valentine's DAy publishing sonnets and verses for their loved ones. In France it is traditional for a "cartes d' amities" to be created for your loved one. This is a elegant card pronouncing your love for the recipient of the card.

Unique Valentine's Day Traditions in Europe

There are also some countries which differ quite a bit from how we celebrate Valentine's Day in the United States. In Italy, traditional Valentine's Day is a day of declaration for engaged couples. The engaged couples announce their engagement to friends and family on Valentine's Day. Denmark and Scotland celebrate in a slightly more involved format.

In Scotland there is a party. Single men and women attend the party. At the party everyone writes their name on a piece of paper and then men put their names in one hat and women put their names in another. Everyone then draws names from the opposite hat. Many times this results in each person having two partners drawn. The tradition is that if your name is drawn by two people, the male should respect the female that drew his name from the hat and be partnered with them for the party. It is possible for both people to draw each other's names, making that a strong partnering according to the tradition.

In Denmark, there are a couple of Valentine's Day traditions. The first is rather unique. People will swap love notes that are meant to be humourous and not serious. They will also sign their names in a coded dot signature. These are referred to as gaekkebrev's and the tradition goes if you can guess who signed the card to you, they will present you with a chocolate egg on Easter as a prize. Along the more traditional lines, lovers also swap candy snowdrops and exchange poems that they wrote for each other.

This year if you are looking for something different to do on Valentine's Day, consider borrowing an idea from these European countries.