Holiday Gifts & Gift Baskets Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Valentine Traditions’

So, you’ve decided to make dinner for your sweetie this Valentine’s Day. Great idea! But if you’ve never really cooked before and are not exactly a pro in the kitchen, you may wonder where to start. Here are some ideas to get you cooking.

First, don’t attempt something so incredibly hard that even a five star chef would be sweating over it. Go with simple and elegant. If you want to make something really nice, go with steak. If your sweetheart is a vegetarian, opt for a nice pasta dish or lobster tails. You don’t have to make several courses. Just one nice main meal and a dessert is more than enough to show you really care.

Choose your menu based on the fresh ingredients you can get. If you can buy fresh lobster tails, go ahead. But just be aware that popular Valentine’s Day foods like lobster, good steaks, and other succulent treats like shrimp are going to be more expensive as demand increases around the holiday.

Another way to go is to mail order the food. You can either order it frozen, as with lobster or steak. Or you can order it already fully cooked and then just warm everything up and serve it. If you have never taken on an entire meal preparation yourself in your life, a great way to impress your date is to have it all brought in. Just transfer the food over to serving dishes once it’s heated and present it nicely. Whether or not you tell where you got it is up to you.

Many mail order companies will deliver right to your door an entire gourmet meal. Choose from rich chowders and soups, fillet Mignon, roast duck and more. You name it and it can be sent out to you in dry ice in time for the big day. Have it delivered to arrive the day before you need it so you won’t be biting your fingernails wondering if it’s going to make it to you on time.

Serve a nice wine with dinner. If you don’t know how to pick a good wine, ask your friendly neighborhood wine merchant. He or she can suggest the best wines for the meal you are serving. And don’t feel like you have to go ultra expensive. You can buy a decent wine now for a good price and still enjoy every drop.

The fact that you are cooking dinner for your loved one is enough of a treat in and of itself. But make it more special by lighting candles, using the best china and silverware you have, using a linen tablecloth and cloth napkins, and serving the food from your best dishes.

Start off your adults only night by playing some romantic music in the background to set the tone of the evening. Have any disruptive pets calmly partitioned off in the other room if they’re likely to snatch your expensive dinner off your plates. Make it as uninterrupted an evening as possible so you can enjoy yourselves to the fullest.

Turn off cell phones and make it a night for conversation. Watch a romantic movie or two and see where the evening takes you. Chances are you will have a Valentine’s Day to remember.

So most of us know what happens during Valentine's Day in the United States - sending cards, Valentine chocolates and candlelit dinners.  But what does the rest of the world do during Valentine's Day?  Below are just a few examples of festivities going on around the world.

Wales - A long-held tradition of giving Welsh Love spoons to ones lover still occurs on Valentine's Day. The wooden spoons are intricately  carved with symbols representing a wide range of emotions intended to convey the givers feelings. Some of the symbol meanings are: Heart - Love, Horseshoe - Good Luck, Celtic Knot - Eternal Love, Twisted Stem - Two Lives Become One and
Birds - Love Birds or Let's Go Away Together.

Japan - The traditional gift given on Valentine's Day in Japan is chocolate, but great care is taken to make sure that the correct type of chocolate is given because there are two types - one suitable for friends and one for lovers.  Giri choco or obligatory chocolate is given by women to their male friends, co-workers and superiors. Honmei choco is chocolate given to the man that a girl is truly interested in or serious about.

Brazil - Brazil does not celebrate Valentine's Day on the 14th of February. Brazilians celebrate the Dia dos Namorados (Day of the Enamored) on June 12th.  The day is is celebrated in colorful style with festivals and dancing. It is also on this day that couples exchange gifts or give flowers and cards to one another.

Mexico - The most prevalent Valentine's Day tradition in Mexico is to exchange gifts in a secret way. The men of Mexico have another special way of showing their affection to the one they love. In the evening, they show up at the home of their girlfriend with a mariachi band or trio of singers who serenade the girl with 2 or 3 romantic songs while standing beneath her window.

10 Ways To Say I Love You

In common languages of the world!

Arabic - Ana behibak (to male)
Arabic - Ana behibek (to female)
Chinese Cantonese - Ngo oiy ney a
Chinese Mandarin - Wo ai ni
French - Je t'aime, Je t'adore
German - Ich liebe dich
Italian - Ti amo
Japanese - Aishiteru or Anata ga daisuki desu
Russian - Ya tebya liubliu
Spanish - Te quiero / Te amo

Need a gift for your sweetie?  Check out all of our Valentine's Day gifts!

We all know how Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the United States. On February 14^th, adult, children and lovers alike exchange Valentine Day gifts and cards with one another. Many Western countries such as Italy, France, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia celebrate this romantic day in much the same way as in the United States. But what do other countries around the world do to celebrate love as we do during our Valentine’s Day celebrations?

In Wales, many people forego the traditional Valentine’s Day celebration in February to celebrate St Dwynwen's Day on January 25^th instead. St. Dwynwen is the patron saint of Welsh lovers.  

The Nordic countries Denmark and Norway know February 14^th as Valentinsdag, but most people don’t celebrate the day unless they take the time to send a romantic card to their lover. However, their neighbor country of Finland has Ystävänpäivä which is known as friendship day when people take the time to remember and celebrate with friends. 

In Israel, people pronounce their love, give marriage proposals and send romantic gifts or cards in late August on Tu B'Av which is the festival of love. 

Brazilians celebrate the Day of the Enamored on June 12^th. This date is just before St. Anthony’s Day who was the marriage saint. It is on this day that couples exchange gifts or give flowers and cards to one another. 

Columbians and Mexicans celebrate Love & Friendship Day similarly. The difference is that in Mexico they celebrate on February 14^th while in Columbia they celebrate in September. The most prevalent tradition is to exchange gifts in a secret way – much like the way Americans do with secret Santa exchanges during the Christmas holiday season. 

In Korea & Japan, our version of Valentine’s Day has evolved into two separate holidays. On February 14^th, women present gifts to their male lovers and friends. The traditional gift given is chocolate. However, there are two different kinds of chocolate that have very different meanings to the recipient – one version for loved ones and one for friends. In fact, over half of the Japanese chocolate gift sales occur at Valentine’s Day. Then, on March 14^th which is known as White Day, the men return the favor by giving gifts to the women. Gift ideas include white chocolate or marshmallows to carry-on the white theme and flowers or jewelry. 

In China, on the 7^th day of the 7^th lunar month, the Chinese celebrate the “Night of Sevens”.  During this festival devoted to love, colorful rituals are performed in addition to exchanging gifts and cards.

Find out even more about Valentine Traditions around the world....

The history of Valentine’s Day and where Valentine Day traditions stem from is an enigma that has required some conjecture and speculation on the part of historians. So where did this romantic holiday where people declare their love for one another likely originate? The Catholic Church acknowledges the existence of up to 11 Saints named Valentine (such as Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni). And there are numerous Christian martyrs who were also named Valentine. The evolving legend stipulates that one of these Saint Valentines from the medieval ages was persecuted and jailed for his Christian beliefs or was a priest that was jailed for performing marriages that did not please the Roman Emperor.  Before being executed, one of these St. Valentines wrote a note to the jailer’s daughter whom he supposedly loved, healed or befriended and signed it ‘From your Valentine’.  Others have postulated, that Valentine traditions may be related to the Greco-Roman fertility and love festivals that they held in February. Of course, how these legends tie into the modern Valentine’s Day holiday is not clear.

Undisputed is the fact that during the 1840’s, the modern era of Valentine’s Day traditions began. It was during that decade that the first mass produced Valentine Day cards were first produced and distributed. The practice of giving gifts to your significant other on this holiday started in the late twentieth century when people starting exchanging Valentine chocolates and flowers in addition to the standard greeting card. Finally when the jewelry industry started promoting for Valentine’s Day in the 1980’s, diamonds took off to become one of the best-sellers during the Valentine holiday.