Celebrating Valentine's Day
Valentine’s Day is best described in the words of this very popular song...
Love is in the air…
Everywhere you look around,
Love is in the air…
In every sight and every sound
Valentine’s Day and love have been intrinsically intertwined for centuries; it’s the day that lovers everywhere declare their love for each other with bouquets of red roses and boxes of chocolates in addition to other precious little love mementos. Come February 14th, the atmosphere of love is all-pervasive. Renditions of love songs fill the air and you can see symbols of love in every nook and corner of every store.
Symbols of Valentine’s Day
- Red Roses: An enduring symbol of passion, beauty and love, red roses are the most popular flower to present to a loved one on Valentine’s Day. Such is the power of red roses that one long-stemmed red rose can impress a loved one as much as a large bouquet of red roses. Roses began their role as symbols of love in ancient Greek mythology, being linked to Aphrodite the Greek goddess of love and beauty, and have kept that association with romance ever since.
- Cupid: Cupid is the son of Venus (the Roman goddess of love), and is another popular Valentine’s Day symbol. This winged, mischievous little angel can always be seen with a quiver of arrows. Legend has it that anyone who got hit with one of Cupid’s arrows would fall in love with the first person they saw. Interestingly, none of his victims can actually see the arrows— it’s only when they fall in love that they realized that they had been shot.
- Chocolates: Since ancient times, chocolates have been associated with courtship and romance. One of the reasons for this is that when eaten, chocolates stimulate the production of a chemical that is similar to the chemical produced when a person is in love.
- Greeting Cards: With an estimated one billion valentine greeting cards sent out annually, Valentine’s Day is the second largest card-sending holiday of the year after Christmas.
- Love Knots: Love knots derive their origins from 19th century sailors on the high seas. They would tie beautiful knots to pass the time until they returned home to their lovers, whom then received the knots as gifts. Often times the knots were incorporated into jewelry and clothing, and were highly coveted.
- Love Birds: These little birds mate for life and signify everlasting fidelity and love. It’s no wonder that they are regarded as love symbols and are very popular on Valentine’s Day.