Valentine’s Day is almost here…ah, the day of love. I did some digging around to learn why and what makes this day so special. Aside from all the cute, warm, and fuzzy reasons why, I also came across some really odd and interesting facts about Valentine’s Day. Hope you enjoy the list and Happy Valentine’s Day to you and your loved ones.
- The Christian martyr Saint Valentine was beheaded on Feb.14 for performing marriages in secret.
- “Love,” in the sense of “no score” in tennis dates to 1792 and means “playing for love” or, in other words, playing for nothing.
- Candy hearts are made with sidewalk chalk.
- Valentine’s Day traces its roots to an ancient pagan holiday called Lupercalia, in which men stripped naked and ran around whipping young women with goatskin thongs in hopes of increasing their fertility.
- When someone looks at a new love, the neural circuits that are usually associated with social judgment are suppressed.
- Research suggests that 75 percent of suicide attempts are attributable to relationship problems.
- Seminal fluid can potentially contribute to romantic love. Reports suggest that the liquid that surrounds the sperm contains dopamine (“the pleasure chemical”) and norepinephrine as well as tyrosine, an amino acid the brain needs to manufacture dopamine.
- The first Valentine’s Day card was sent by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. He remained a prisoner of war for the next 24 years. Bad news: 15 percent of U.S. women send flowers to themselves on V-Day.
- More pregnancy tests are sold in March than in any other month.
- When a man holds a baby his testosterone level drops.
- The famous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, in which seven Chicago gangsters were gunned down on Feb. 14, 1929, was one of the bloodiest in mob history.
- Some psychologists argue that we fall in love with someone who is similar to the parent with whom we have unresolved childhood issues, unaware we are seeking to resolve this childhood relationship in adulthood.
- 64 percent of American men do not make Valentine’s Day plans in advance.