Weird, Strange, and ObscureFacts About Valentine's Day

According to Brain Candy Holidays, 15% of U.S. women send themselves flowers on Valentine's Day.

In the United States, 64 percent of men do not make plans in advance for a romantic Valentine's Day with their sweethearts.

Chocolate manufacturers currently use 40 percent of the world's almonds and 20 percent of the world's peanuts

Approximately 110 million roses, the majority red, will be sold and delivered within a three-day time period.

About 3% of pet owners will give Valentine's Day gifts to their pets.

About 1 billion Valentine's Day cards are exchanged each year. That's the largest seasonal card-sending occasion of the year, next to Christmas.

Everything Valentine's Day reports that The Duke of Orleans sent the oldest known Valentine in 1415 A.D. to his French wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. It is still on display in a museum in England but another claim says the tradition goes back to a Christian martyr, St. Valentine, executed in Rome by Claudious II around 470 A.D. Meridian Graphics. However, according to Wikipedia, the first recorded association of Valentine's Day with romantic love is in a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer written in 1382.

The Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare's lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet every Valentine's Day.

Teachers will receive the most Valentine's Day cards, followed by children, mothers, wives, and then, sweethearts.

Chicago's post office rejected more than 25,000 cards on the grounds that they were so indecent; they were not fit to be carried through the U.S.. mail. This was during the late 1800s, an era when racy valentine's cards were very popular.

According to the condom company Durex, condom sales are highest around Valentine's Day which are 20 percent to 30 percent higher than usual.

Hallmark employs an 80-person research staff to analyze the sales pattern of previous Valentine's Day. Wisebread.

The University of Maryland's website points out that it has a resident team experts on Valentine's Day available to the media to answer any possible question relating to Valentine's Day.

According to facts provided by the U.S. Census Bureau Current Industrial Reports for 2006, the per capita consumption of candy by Americans in 2006 is 26 pounds.

There were also 21, 335 florists in the U.S. in 2005 employing 101,861 people.

There are only 2 towns in the U.S. named Valentine. One is Texas, the other is in Nebraska.

SOURCES
http://www.corsinet.com
EverythingValentinesDay.com
www.durex.com/cm
by Will Chen www.wisebread.com
www.newsdesk.umd.
www.meridiangraphics.net
www.census.gov
en.wikipedia.org