Stan Valentino Hi Tech. Love for one’s other half, love for the four-legged friend, love for children, love for parents… Love is love and if it is true that you don’t need a day to celebrate it, it is equally true that Valentine’s Day can still be a good occasion to a special day to spend with those you love.
Valentine’s Day: The Story
The origin of this feast has very distant roots and explains why Valentine is the saint of lovers. Valentino was a Christian bishop martyred and died in Rome on February 14, 273 and subsequently made a saint. There are many stories related to the life of Valentine’s Day that have helped to unite his name with that of the lovers.
One of these tells that one day the saint met two young men who were arguing. He approached them with a rose and invited them to hold it together in their hands: this gesture made them reconcile immediately.
According to a variant of the story, however, Valentine’s Day would have made love return between the two young people by doing fly around them several pairs of pigeons: hence the spread too the expression ‘lovebirds’ in reference to loving couples who exchange effusions.
Currently the holiday is considered as a moment of exchange of love messages and gifts between those who love each other and this practice would seem to date back to the early Middle Ages with the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer and the birth of courtly love. Perhaps not everyone knows that it is only from this period that the heart shape begins to take on meanings of love and feeling, before it represented only the anatomical organ.
Valentine’s Day: customs around the world
Depending on the country there are different customs and traditions to celebrate love and feelings in general.
In Spainfor example, for Valentine’s Day couples usually spend the evening doing a candlelight dinner and then a walk. And those who treat themselves to a weekend out of town often choose Sevillehome of the sultry fandango.
For the AmericansValentine’s Day is not only the day of lovers and couples, but it is also the day of families and friendship ties. On this occasion, tickets and sweets are exchanged.
In Brazil, people who love each other celebrate on June 12, the day before the feast of Sant’Antonio, patron saint of weddings. Here women who have no husband yet, during their Valentine’s Day, they carry with them a statuette of the saintto whom they entrust their desire to go to the altar.
In Japan, however, on February 14th it is women who give chocolates to men, who are not necessarily husbands or boyfriends. In turn, whoever received the gift, one month later (March 14) on the occasion of White Day it is required to reciprocate the gesture by offering white chocolate.
Funny, then, the tradition of South Koreaidentical to the Japanese one, except that on April 14, the Black Dayanyone who has not received anything on February 14 or March 14 should go to a restaurant where they will eat cuttlefish ink spaghetti and he will have to lament his amorous misfortunes.
Finally, the customs of less demanding Finland and Estonia: for them, February 14 is simply i“friends day” and we celebrate in company, rather than with a candlelit dinner.
Hi Tech Valentine’s Day: not just flowers and chocolates…
Men almost never shine for inventiveness when it comes to gifts to their sweet halves, and the data on Valentine’s Day confirms this. According to statistics, 73% usually give flowers on February 14th.
And if they are not flowers… Most often they are chocolates. The tradition of giving this dessert for Valentine’s Day – often packaged in heart-shaped boxes – dates back to 1868 and to the confectionery industry magnate Richard Cadbury.
How about making this anniversary a little more original with slightly different gifts than usual? A voucher for a couple’s massage, a pair of sports headphones, a massager or, why not, a sex toys to make the hottest intimacy.
For some ideas to inspire you, browse the gallery above.
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