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| | The National Retail Federation has announced that it expects Americans to spend upwards of $14 billion for the Valentine's Day holiday. Howard Davidowitz, a retail consultant, states that restaurants and retailers that sell cards, candy, flowers and jewelry, will lead the way during the Valentine's Day sales rush. He also noted that online flower sales should also be very strong. He noted that more jewelry also is being sold over the Internet. The average consumer is expected to spend $108 on a Valentine's Day gift.
For the first time, valentines were made for sale in the 1840s, when Ester Howland released her first batch of greeting cards in the United States of America. Already in the first year, she sold these bright cards for the sum of 5,000 dollars. Since then, valentines became an integral part of the Valentine holiday in the USA. With respect to the volume of sales, valentines occupies first place as over a billion valentines are sold annually only in America and the sale of Christmas cards stands at second place.
Women buy the most of the Valentine's Day greeting cards (approximately 85% of cards). Also, on Lovers day February 14, people buy boxes of sweets, chocolates and bouquets of roses (as a rule, these gifts are bought by men) for their loved ones.
But, how did Valentine's Day originate? For this, several versions exist. In this article, we shall talk about the history of Lover's Day, its traditions, which took shape during all these long years.
How did Valentine's Day originate:
The origin of Valentine's Day is shrouded with mystery. The professor from Notre Dame University, Lawrence Konningen, says that two widely spread theories of origin of Lover's Day exist as of today:
1. The Roman holiday Lupercalia: On February 14th, one day prior to the Roman holiday Lupercalia, people celebrated the pagan holiday of fertility. On this day, they showered with gifts and worshipped the queen of the Roman gods and the goddesses Juno, who was also considered as the patroness of marriage. Girls wrote love letters, which were called "tickets", and put them in a special jar. Men would take a note from the special jar. After reading the letter and the name of the girl, men would approach the girl. This custom existed till the 18th century, and later on people decided that it would be better to select his or her valentine on their own instead of leaving it to the mercy of destiny.
2. The second theory is linked to the behavior of birds and bees. In the Middle Ages, many lover pairs sent love messages to each other on this day as they considered that many birds began "marriages" on the 14th of February.
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