Festive Friday: 5 Valentine's Day Traditions Around the World

We love researching how other countries celebrate festivities!! With Valentine's Day, tomorrow, we are excited to share 5 Valentine's Day Traditions Around the World!

Photo taken in Bordeaux, France during my visit in October 2014. Beautiful display of affection.

Fun Fact: Approximately 150 million Valentine's Day cards are exchanged annually, making Valentine's Day the second most popular card-sending holiday after Christmas.

Source: http://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/history-of-valentines-day 

In addition to the United States, Valentine’s Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France and Australia. In Great Britain, Valentine’s Day began to be popularly celebrated around the 17th century. By the middle of the 18th, it was common for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes, and by 1900 printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one’s feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine’s Day greetings.

Source: http://www.stvalentinesday.org/valentines-day-in-us.html

I came across a great website called “Today I Found Out” and found a feature on Valentine's traditions around the world. Here are a few to share and you can visit the link below for more!! 

#1 England: In the 1700’s, on the eve of Valentine’s day single women in England used to place/pin five bay leaves, one at each corner of their pillows and one in the center, with the belief that it would bring them dreams of their future husbands. Another variation of this tradition was to sprinkle bay leaves with rosewater and lay them across their pillows saying “Good Valentine, be kind to me, In dreams let me my true love see”. Now mostly considered folklore, this tradition is not widely practiced anymore but can still be seen once in a while.

#2 Japan: In this part of the World, it’s all about spoiling your man on Valentine’s day and not the other way around like in most Western cultures. Japanese women are usually said to be reserved and shy when it comes to expressing their affections with lovey-dovey gestures. However, on this day, the women are in the forefront presenting the men (and sometimes even female friends) in their lives gifts (mostly chocolates), to express either their love, courtesy or social obligation.

This custom of gifting chocolate in Japan on February 14th, was first introduced in 1936 by a Kobe-based confectioner ‘Morozoff Ltd.’, when it ran the first ever Valentine’s Day ad in Japan through a local English newspaper, with the intent of targeting foreigners that were used to celebrating the holiday of love. By the 1950’s other Japanese chocolate manufacturers joined in and started promotions to boost their chocolate sales on that day and a department store called ‘Isetan’, even started a “Valentine’s Sale” in 1958. In the 70’s a new promotion concept caught on… gifting different types of Valentine’s chocolates to express the nature of one’s relationship intent without the need for words.

#3 Finland & Estonia: Here Valentine’s Day is more a celebration of friendship rather than a romantic love fest. February 14th is called “Ystävän Päivä” in Finnish and Sõbrapäev in Estonian, which literally translates to “Friend’s Day”. People exchange cards & gifts among friends with the greeting of “Happy Friends Day”. It is however, a popular day to tie the knot or get engaged.

#4 South Korea: Adapted from the Japanese tradition of Valentine’s Day, women in South Korea too, spoil their men with chocolates on this day. In return, they receive gifts on ‘White Day’ from men in a similar fashion as in Japan. However, it doesn’t end there. They have taken the Valentine’s traditions a step further and introduced what they call “Black Day”. On the April 14th, a month after ‘White Day’ the single people who didn’t receive any lovin’ (chocolates or gifts) on Valentine’s Day or White Day for that matter, have started an informal tradition of meeting up at restaurants to eat ‘jajangmyeon’ (자장면 ), a dish made up of white Korean noodles with a black bean sauce, referred to as black noodles. Some say this tradition of eating black noodles with other single friends is a celebration of the single life, while some see it as is more of a consolation dinner or mourning of being single. That said, South Koreans are a romantic bunch and have practically marked the 14th of every month to signify some sort of ‘Love’ related day. January 14, kicks off with Candle Day; February 14- Valentine’s Day; March 14- White Day; April 14- Black Day; May 14- Rose Day; June 14- Kiss Day; July 14- Silver Day; August 14- Green Day; September 14- Music Day; October 14- Wine Day; November 14- Movie Day; December 14- Hug Day.

#5 France: Dubbed one of the most romantic countries in the world, it comes as no surprise that France too houses a strange Valentine’s Day tradition. Their most popular tradition was called “une loterie d’amour” that translates to “drawing for love”. This practice involved single men and women of all ages to enter houses that faced opposite each other and take turns calling out to one another until they were paired off. If the men didn’t like their match, they would simply leave the woman for another man to call. As part of the tradition, the women that didn’t get matched up, got together for a big ceremonial bonfire in which they tossed pictures & objects of the men who rejected them, whilst swearing and hurling curses at the opposite sex. This tradition truly exemplified the phrase “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!”, so much so, that French government officially banned the practice all together because of how rowdy and uncontrollable the whole event usually got.

Source: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/02/10-strange-wonderful-valentines-day-traditions-from-around-the-world/