Valentine's Day Trivia

• 15% of U.S. women send themselves flowers on Valentine's Day.
• 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
• In 1866, candy manufacturer NECCO made the first "Conversation Hearts" — then called "Motto Hearts." According to NECCO, eight billion of these little candies are sold between January 1 and February 14.
• Valentine's Day is big business. Consumers will spend an average of $77.43 on Valentine's Day gifts this year. E-commerce retailers expect to rack up about $650 million in sales of food, candy, flowers, and other Valentine's Day gifts. Of that amount about $350 million will be for gifts and flowers and another $45 million will be spent on food (including chocolate) and wine.
• About 3% of pet owners will give Valentine's Day gifts to their pets.
• February 14, 1974, The Captain and Tennille were married.
• Alexander Graham Bell applied for his patent on the telephone on Valentine`s Day in 1876. 
• In UK, a woman would write the names of their sweethearts on small scraps of paper which would be placed on clay balls. The balls were dropped into water with the belief that whichever scrap of paper surfaced first would be the name of the man destined to be the future husband.
• One of the most ancient of Valentine`s Days rituals (dating from at least the Middle Ages and possibly earlier) was the practice of writing the names of young ladies on slips of paper and placing them within a jar or bowl. The lady whose name was drawn by an eligible bachelor became his valentine and he wore the name on his sleeve for one week. It is believed that the saying "to wear one`s heart on one`s sleeve" (meaning that is easy for others to know the romantic inclination of an individual) may have originated from this custom.

In other news I got yellow tulips and a box of chocolate covered fortune cookies for valentines day. Romantic yes? Not In the slightest because that would be weird. Hehe.

Sophie