If you are married, currently dating somebody, or just a hopeless romantic still looking from that perfect guy or girl, you most likely already know all about Valentine’s Day. Celebrated on February 14, Valentine’s Day is the day where everybody becomes especially romantic, the flower and chocolate industries receive a healthy boost in revenue, and the image of the heart is ubiquitous. Although Valentine’s Day has not always been associated exclusively with romantic love, the holiday as we know it today is all about reinforcing the special bond between lovers and the creating new bonds between those fortunate enough to find love on the day. Another traditional part of Valentine’s Day is the exchanging of valentines, love notes featuring personalized messages and decorated with imagery appropriate to the season. While Valentine’s Day originated in the West and is most prevalently observed there, a concentrated marketing effort has incorporated Asia into the festivities. Because of this, the phenomenon of Valentine’s Day has become a truly global affair.

Although we have come to agree that Valentine’s Day is a historical holiday that has been celebrated through centuries as a way to honor Saint Valentine, the details regarding the identity of Saint Valentine and the reason that he has a day devoted to him have become hazy over the years. One version of the story behind Valentine’s Day focuses on a priest named Valentine that served during the third century in Rome. The emperor at the time, Claudius II, decided that single men made better soldiers, as opposed to those with wives and families, thus forcing him to outlaw marriage for young men. Instead of going into marriage and raising families, these young men would instead become soldiers, wholly concerned with the task at hand. Understanding the need for these young men to find love and get married, Valentine continued to perform marriage ceremonies in secret so that the young soldiers could have it both ways. Unfortunately, Claudius II discovered Valentine’s secret marriage ceremonies and ordered that the priest be put to death. The circumstances involving Valentine’s death made him a martyr in the eyes of the church, while the cause for which he died, love, became the theme of the day devoted to him.

There are other stories about the identity of Valentine as well. One version of the Valentine story suggests that instead of serving in the name of love, Valentine actually helped Christians escape from Roman prisons. Notoriously brutal and unmerciful, being sent to these prisons meant certain death, and Valentine’s courage in helping Christians to escape made him a hero and a martyr in the eyes of the church. Yet another telling of the story suggests that Valentine started the tradition of sending “valentines,” or love notes, by sending one himself. While Valentine was in prison, he sent a love note to a young girl, whom he had begun to fancy. In fact, this young girl may have been the daughter of the very jailor that was holding Valentine captive, and this young girl would frequently visit Valentine in his captivity. According to this version of the legend, Valentine wrote the young girl a love note signed, “From your Valentine,” right before he was to die. This expression is still popularly used today as part of the Valentine’s Day celebrations. Because of the fact that Valentine, in all of the legends, was heroic, courageous, and romantic, he quickly became one of the most popular saints during the Middle Ages, helping to cement the tradition of Valentine’s Day in Western culture.

The evolution of Valentine’s Day throughout history is a fascinating bit of holiday history. Many scholars suggest that the celebration of Valentine’s Day when it is celebrated – February 14th – was a direct response from the Christian church to the pagan festival of Lupercalia, which was celebrated from the 13th of February to the 15th. By having Valentine’s Day in the middle of the festival, the events would be Christianized and more conversions would take place. History also suggests that Valentine’s Day did not take on the connotation of romantic love until the Middle Ages, when Geoffrey Chaucer’s work became to place the holiday in a different context. The modern observation of Valentine’s Day is thought to have its roots in the 19th century, when the practice of sending valentines spread from England to the United States. Thanks to Esther Howland of Massachusetts, who first began to mass produce valentine greetings in 1847, the tradition of sending valentine greetings to loved ones and lovers alike has become ingrained within American tradition for over a century.

Today, Valentine’s Day is the second-most popular time of the year for sending and receiving greeting cards, according to the Greeting Card Association. About one billion valentine cards are sent every year, and amount second only to Christmas, which sees about 2.6 billion greeting cards delivered during the course of the holiday season. About 85% of the greeting cards are purchased by women, but both men and women are known to embrace the spirit of the holiday by surprising each other with romantic presents. Such a present may consist of a personalized valentine greeting, a bouquet of red roses, a box of chocolates, a romantic getaway, or perhaps a combination of all of the above for a particularly love-struck valentine. Whereas other holidays throughout the year may be devoted to spending time with one’s family, Valentine’s Day has become an important time for lovers to show each other how much they care in whatever way possible.

Valentine’s Day originated in Europe, and as such, plenty of countries throughout Europe have their own special ways of celebrating the holiday. In some parts of the UK, a character called Jack Valentine knocks on the back door of houses, leaving presents and sweets for the young ones. Other parts of the UK celebrate other holidays in addition to or instead of Valentine’s Day. The French refer to the day simply as “Saint Valentin” and celebrate it much the same as other Western countries do. Spain combines some of the practices of the UK with certain regional practices, such as festivities of the rose and book giving ceremonies. Countries such as Sweden do not officially celebrate the holiday, while other countries like Slovenia assign a completely different significance to the holiday than the rest of the West.

Central and South America also celebrate Valentine’s Day, although in some countries it is renamed, celebrated during a different part of the year, or it encompasses different values than romantic love. Many countries throughout Asia have come to celebrate Valentine’s Day, specifically Singapore, China, and South Korea. In Japan, one tradition that has evolved on Valentine’s Day involves many women giving gifts of chocolate to all of their male coworkers. Fortunately for women, a similar day called White Day is celebrated on March 14, where men are expected to return the favor. South Korea has a similar system in place, with the addition of Black Day on April 14, where those who did not receive anything on February 14th and March 14th are expected to go to a Chinese restaurant and eat black noodles in order to mourn the fact that they are still single. Whether one is single or happily in love, it is difficult to not feel at least a bit hopeful on Valentine’s Day about the prospect of finding romance.