Valentine Celebrations Global Tour
Have you been asking what all the hoo-ha was with Valentine’s Day? Was Feb 14th filled with romance and flowers in your household? You wouldn’t be alone if it was, as Brits really do go to town on Valentine’s Day right from school children to couples who have been together a lifetime. I love visiting other countries and taking a peek at how they celebrate – birthdays, weddings, births and deaths, after all it’s what I’ve built my career on. So here’s our look at our Valentine Celebrations Global Tour:
Valentine’s Day is an interesting one. And all isn’t how you would think. Love is all around no matter where you go but it’s celebrated in different ways on different dates across the world and I’ve certainly taken some inspiration from the different interpretations….
Malaysia’s Day of Love
On Malaysia‘s day of love, which falls on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, women write their phone numbers on oranges before throwing them into the closest river with hopes that the man of their dreams might pick one up.
Brazil – Dia dos Namorados
In Brazil they celebrate Dia dos Namorados (“Day of Lovers”) on June 12. On the eve of the day, women write the names of various crushes on folded-up pieces of paper. Whichever name they pick from the pile on the following day will be the one they marry, or at least choose to go for.
The USA – Party Time!
As you’d expect in the USA Valentine’s Day is hugely popular. In fact the ‘love’ even spread to teachers, parents and any other close relation. Dinner and dance parties take place across the country for couples to celebrate the day. Many of the Valentine’s Day traditions we now use – chocolates, flowers etc all come straight from the USA. The celebrations even take place in schools with Valentine’s Day performances.
Italy – A little Chocolate
Next on our look at ‘Valentine Celebrations Global Tour’ – it’s off to Italy. Valentine’s Day was once celebrated as an open-air festival in the spring. Young people would gather in gardens to listen to music and the reading of poetry. These romantic scenes have long since died out..what a shame! A popular Valentine’s Day gift nowadays is ‘Baco Perugina’, a small, chocolate-covered hazelnut containing a small slip of paper with a romantic poetic quote in four languages which you often see in shops in the UK.
Denmark – Snowdrops
A typical Danish Valentine’s Day custom is to send pressed Snowdrops to friends and the Danes also see it as a time of fun. Danish men send their chosen one a form of valentine known as a gaekkebrev (or “joking letter”). This gaekkebrev is a type of romantic letter that contains a rhyme compiled by the sender and the name of who sent it isn’t included in the end…just a series of dots for each letter of the name. If the lady who receives the gaekkebrev correctly guesses the sender’s name, he rewards her with an Easter egg during Eastertide.
South Korea – Candy Gifts
In South Korea and Japan, couples celebrate two Valentine’s Days. On February 14th, women give chocolate to men and in the following month on ‘White Day’, men turn it around by giving non-chocolate candy.
I think I’m sticking with the traditional British way to celebrate though – maybe with an Italian Baco Preugina thrown in!