Prezzyblog

Scuse the 'not so' catchy title, but we thought we'd get straight to the point... February 14th. St Valentine's Day. The day that Cupid fires his bow. The Day of Luuuuurve. You get the picture.

But why do we celebrate St Valentine's Day? Where did it come from? Was it just a commercial idea dreamt up by entrepreneurs of yesteryear (and if so why didn't they invent a LOT more similar celebrations? Grrrr!) or does it have some more deep seated mystical relevance? Oooohhhhh (spooky mystical ghost sound).

And whilst we're on this journey of enlightenment, why do we celebrate it in the way we do? Why cards flowers and chocolates? Why only the 1 day and why this particular day? Thankfully we tasked our analytical brain box (Amanda) with these questions and she gleefully scurried off to find the answers for your delectation's...

The Origins of St Valentine's Day

The origins of Valentine’s Day are thought to date back to the time of the Roman Empire around 300AD and the martyrdom of a Roman Priest called Valentine with festivals linked to fertility taking place in mid February (what is it about those Romans? Everything was about killing and sex!)

These festivals are far removed from the current notion of Valentine’s day, as they included the sacrifice of goats and involved boys wearing the resulting hide slapping women in the face!  In a precursor to Blind Date, another ritual was the placing of girls names in an urn, boys then drew a name and the matched couple spent the year together to see if they fell in love. They could have saved themselves 364 days 23 hours and 59 minutes by simply using our Love Compatibility Test on the Little Love Bot (blatant plug number 1 for our new website!).

Seems that 300AD was a popular year for all things 'naughty' as it is also thought to be the year when the Kama Sutra was written! Bazinger!

Why do we send Valentine's Day Cards?

The first recorded Valentine’s card dates back to the 1400s, with the first manufactured cards appearing in the 1800s. But why send cards in the first place? Well, in 'Ye Olde Times' people used to sing to their Valentine in an demonstration of their love. Then, in the 1400s some bright spark had the notion of jotting down these verses and adding drawings and embroidery and before you knew it the Valentines Day card was born!

Seems us humans are a soppy lot! Last year over 1 billion Valentine’s Day cards were sent in the world, which marks a whopping 14.2% of the population. The average card costs £3 which means that as a species we spend a gargantuan £3billion’s on cards!

Why do this? In its place we could buy 18 Octopus yachts like the one owned by Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen? FYI the Octopus comes complete with 2 helicopters, a swimming pool and a 10 man submarine and you’d still have a bit left over for the £20m a year maintenance costs.

Sadly 1 billion cards equates to 500 tonnes of card, which would use 12,000 trees - enough to cover the UK  4 times over. Instead spending billions on cards this Valentines Day we recommend everyone saves their money whilst still conveying a romantic message. How? Simply leave a message of love on the Little Love Bot (blatant plug for our awesome new website number 2!). The money saved could buy Buckingham Palace 3 times or rebuild the White House a whopping 31 times. In your face American buildings of importance. Ours are soooooo much better!

Flowers and Chocolate - the way to a womans heart

By far the most popular Valentines gift is flowers with 2.3 million bunches being sold in the UK last Valentines, enough to fill 77 football pitches and equating to £34.5m.  For £34.5m you could have bought Ireland on Dubai’s famous World development and still had a bit left over for a Bugatti Veyron.

The red rose is a flower synonymous with love, which is probably why it is the most purchased flower at Valentines and the most expensive.  Part of the expense is down to the time taken to produce the perfect single stem, which is 50-70 days, by which time you could have rowed the Atlantic or completed the Tour de France 3 times!

What do you do if you’re not expecting to receive any flowers this Valentines?  Well you could do what 15% of American women did last year and send them to yourself. Britain 2, America 0!

After flowers, chocolates are the next most popular Valentines gift with £29m being spent on them last Valentines, which is roughly 5.8m boxes.   If all these boxes were stacked side by side they would reach from London to Moscow.

Struggling to find the perfect gift? (I think you know where this is going...) Then why not check out the 'Gifts of Love Generator' on our awesome new website the Little Love Bot (blatant plug number 3 yada yada yada!).

How much should you spend on the other half?

When it comes to how much to spend on a valentines gift men are the most generous with 33% spending more than £20 on a gift compared to women who tend to spend less than £20 #gomen!

But what about going that extra yard (or 0.9144 metres for those who prefer metric)...

If you’re looking to splash out this Valentines, how about snapping up Castle Carbonana in Italy?  This castle, which dates back to 400BC comes with its own helipad (added much later) and makes a perfect get away if you have a spare £10m lying around.  It would take the average person in the UK 365 years to earn enough to buy it but based on current salaries and bonuses RBS banking chief John Hourican could buy it from 2 years work and still have £1.8m in loose change. In fact if all the RBS chiefs pooled their bonuses for the year they could buy it 50 times over!!!

If a castle is a little bit out of your price range how about your own private island in Brazil? A snip at only £1.6m.  You could have the money in 59 years, or alternatively you could ask David Beckham to give you 24 days pay or Wayne Rooney a gargantuan 49 days earnings.

Other gifts of exuberance... How about the World’s largest cut emerald the size of a watermelon valued at $1.15 million (obviously not THAT popular as it recently failed to sell at auction), a diamond encrusted bra by Victoria Secrets for $10,000,000, a night in the imperial suite at President Wilson Hotel in Geneva for  £20,800,  or a cute little pedigree German Shepard puppy for between £2,000-£15,000! Woof!

What do Celebrities buy one another?

When it comes to expensive Valentines gestures then take a look at how the celebs do it.  Before they were married Katy Perry bought Russell Brand a Lilac Bentley Brookland for around $341,000 and when Courtney Cox was married to David Arguette she gave him a carousel horse costing around $630,000 and George Clooney treated his then girlfriend to a romantic $40,000 hotel suite.

But does money buy you love and happiness?  Based on these examples, no.  Brand and Perry split this year, Cox and Arguette split in 2010 and Clooney and Larson went their separate ways in 2008.  Maybe best to stick to flowers and chocolate!

So there you have it... Next time you leave it till the last minute to buy your nearest and dearest a Valentines Day card from the local garage with a bunch of manky old flowers remember that you're potentially disrespecting 100's years of tradition. Not to mention the Little Love Bot.

Sources: BBC, CBNC, The Telegraph, Professional Florists UK, Office of National Statistics, British Musuem, www.history.com, In style, www.celebs.com. Forbes, www.conservatree.org, Daily Mail