Valentine's Day 2013 LIVE: Date, Facts, History and Gift Ideas

Culture

On February 14, millions of lovers around the world will celebrate Valentine's Day by exchanging cards, chocolate, flowers and even sexy lingerieAccording to legend, Valentine was a priest during the third century in Rome who defied Emperor Claudius II's marriage ban for young people (under the thinking that single men became better soldiers). In Great Britain, Valentine's Day began to be celebrated around the 17th century, while Americans began exchanging hand-made cards in the early 1700s (Esther A. Howland began to sell the first mass-produced valentines in America around the 1840s). According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion valentine cards — of which women purchase 85% — are sent each year (an estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas).