Welcome back to the Learn English podcast, the podcast teaching English in context so you can learn naturally.
My name is Dr. C and I'm a TESL Certified English Teacher.
I teach English online to students who are learning it as a second language.
I created this podcast with the goal of becoming a resource for you to help you with your fluency, vocabulary, and knowledge of American culture.
On today's episode, I want to work on the culture aspect because this week is going to be Valentine's Day.
I want to discuss the history of Valentine's Day and how it is celebrated here in the United States.
With that, let's begin.
If you are watching this episode or listening to this episode when it comes out, then it is almost Valentine's Day.
Valentine's Day is a day that is celebrated all across the world and it is a day to express your love for someone.
I want to discuss how this day became such a part of global culture.
When we talk about the history of Valentine's Day, we have to go back to the ancient Roman Empire.
During Roman times, there was a festival in the month of February that was a fertility festival.
The Roman god of agriculture and the goddess of women were the gods that were celebrated during this festival.
Another part of the festival included young men selecting the names of young women from ajar.
The young women that they selected would then become their partner for the days during the festival.
Although this wasn't about love because they were just a temporary couple, this did lay the groundwork as we would say.
It was the beginnings of having a matchmaking festival in the month of February.
When Christianity became more widespread, when it started becoming more popular throughout the Roman Empire, this holiday had to change.
Although the Christian leaders wanted to continue on with a festival in the month of February, they wanted it to be more Christian -like, more tame, we would say.
Not so loud, not so involving alcohol and people becoming temporary couples for just a few days.
They wanted it to become more Christianized.
Because of this, during the 5th century, there were a lot of saints who were sainted as Saint Valentine.
Now it is a little bit difficult to select the exact saint that was tied with Valentine's Day, and there are a couple different theories about who he was and what he did.
One theory is that he was a bishop who was known for his charity, and he eventually became a martyr in the Christian Church.
That means that he died, he was persecuted, he was killed because he was a Christian.
Therefore, the idea is that his charity and his giving back and being loving to people is what's tied with Valentine's Day.
Another theory is that the day is tied to Saint Valentine of Rome.
Now the theory here is that this Valentine was a priest who secretly wed young couples and went against the decree of Emperor Claudius II who had banned these marriages.
The story is that eventually he was caught and he was persecuted and martyred because he was breaking the law and marrying these couples.
Therefore, his story tying into Valentine's Day is that he was celebrating young love and helping these couples get together.
Either way, the date of February 14th was officially declared as Valentine's Day, and it got tied to the sentiments of young love and showing your love to someone else.
Part of Valentine's Day includes this tradition of writing your loved one a handwritten letter.
These are called Valentine's.
The origin of these Valentine's, these handwritten letters goes back to the Middle Ages, somewhere in Europe.
Now, just like the Saint Valentine, there is a couple different theories about where this comes from.
One is from the author, Geoffrey Chaucer.
Geoffrey Chaucer was a medieval author and he's known for writing the book The Canterbury Tales.
However, in this case, with his association with Valentine's Day, he's credited with writing one of the first Valentine's Day poems, and that got Valentine's handwritten notes to become more popular.
The association between love and Valentine's Day continued in the 17th century in Europe.
During this time, people began to exchange small gifts and cards with each other to celebrate Valentine's Day.
Now, in the 19th century, the woman who is called the mother of the American Valentine, her name was Esther A.
Howland, and she is credited with making the first mass -produced Valentine's Day cards.
Her cards were known to be very intricate for having a lot of lace and symbols of love on them, and the popularity of these cards and the fact that they were mass -produced, which means that they were made on a large scale and they were relatively inexpensive to buy, helped lead to the commercialization of Valentine's
Day here in the United States.
Valentine's Day became even more popular in the 19th century when the United States Postal Service invented stamps.
People were able to take the cards, put a stamp on them, and then put them in the mail.
They could therefore be delivered to anyone in the country and lead to further exchanging of these cards, these valentines, on Valentine's Day.
For example, in the United States, we have a company called Hallmark.
Hallmark is known for making their cards, and Hallmark's cards became associated with Valentine's Day and with the traditional gift of exchanging cards on February 14th.
Other companies and businesses also started marketing their products as gifts for Valentine's Day.
It was during this time period that chocolate and flowers started becoming associated with the day.
Chocolate makers also started serving their chocolates in heart -shaped box, and this heart shape became a symbol for love and became associated with the day.
Now, when you go to try to buy a Valentine's gift for someone, you will see hearts everywhere.
In most of the stores, even in grocery stores, Walmart, Target, at the mall, you will see these heart -shaped gifts everywhere, and it is a very common symbol to see during Valentine's.
In modern America, Valentine's Day is very much celebrated for young children who are in school.
This usually involves having very small Valentine's Day cards.
You get a bunch of these cards, one for everyone in your class.
You put your name on it, and then you exchange them with the classmates who are in your class, with your friends who are in the class.
You might also have little candies, a few little pieces of candy that you put with the card, but you don't have to.
Sometimes, little children give other gifts instead.
They might give pencils or erasers or some type of stickers.
Candy is a common one, but again, it doesn't have to be the only one because there's so little.
It's not really a gift for a partner, like a girlfriend or boyfriend.
It's just something that you give for fun and that you give to everyone in your class.
So, you will see classes that exchange Valentine's, and you might have children come home with a bunch of Valentine's cards.
That is something that happened to me when I was a kid, and I definitely had a bunch of Valentine's after exchanging them with the people who are in my class.
When it comes to adults celebrating Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day is definitely very commercialized.
When you go to a store, you will see so many products and so many gifts being marketed, being advertised for people to buy and give to their Valentine, to their boyfriend or girlfriend, their fiancé, their husband or wife, etc.
People can also exchange Valentine's Day gifts with friends.
So, for example, if you are single, let's say you don't have a significant other, and your friends are also single, you might exchange gifts with them.
So, a bunch of single females might exchange gifts with each other.
However, it is definitely more common to actually give it to the loved one in your life, whether it be a boyfriend or girlfriend, a husband or wife, or a fiancé.
In general, when we talk about Valentine's Day in the United States, it is estimated that Americans spend $26 billion on Valentine's Day gifts and experiences.
Now, I know the word billion doesn't mean the same thing in other languages, so in case you're wondering, $26 billion is 26 with nine zeros after it.
It is a lot of money.
When you come out with the average amount, this means that the average amount that the average American spends on Valentine's Day is about $190.
Now, the most spent category, where most of this $26 billion comes from, is from jewelry sales.
It is estimated that Americans spend $5 .5 billion on jewelry.
At this time of year, in February, you're going to see a lot of advertisements by jewelry companies marketing rings, bracelets, necklaces, etc.
It doesn't always have to be the male who's buying jewelry for the female, but I would say traditionally that's the most common.
A lot of people will buy jewelry for the female significant other in their life, if it's their girlfriend or fiancé or wife.
There's also a tradition of men proposing to women on Valentine's Day.
It's supposed to be very romantic, so you'll see a lot of advertisements for engagement rings for men to use to try to get engaged on Valentine's Day.
The other big category is eating out.
Americans will spend about $5 billion going out to eat at restaurants on Valentine's Day.
If you go to a restaurant on February 14th, I will tell you that they are usually packed.
Of course, it depends if you're going to a McDonald's, it's probably not going to have a crowd, but if you're going to a nice sit -down restaurant, a nice restaurant to go eat, it's usually really, really hard to get into.
Personally, I don't go eat on Valentine's Day because of this.
Usually, you have to make a reservation in advance.
There are a lot of people, so it's a lot of crowds when you go out.
Because there are so many people, the restaurants tend to be very slow.
They're a little bit overwhelmed on Valentine's Day, and it's hard to get your food.
Personally, I don't like to go out to eat, but it is a big part of the holiday, and there are a lot of couples who will go out and celebrate Valentine's Day at a restaurant.
When it comes to other things that Americans spend money on, one of them is chocolate.
Chocolate is still definitely tied to the holiday.
Overall, it's estimated that $1 .6 billion is spent buying chocolate for Valentine's Day gifts, and 36 million of the heart -shaped boxes are sold every year on Valentine's Day.
The other classic gift is flowers, and I will say that flowers usually are associated when you're talking about roses.
Now, it doesn't just have to be roses, but usually roses are the flowers that you would give to someone for Valentine's Day, especially if you're a man and you're trying to buy a gift, flowers for the woman in your life.
Usually, it's roses.
Again, it doesn't have to be.
People do give other types of flowers, but roses, and specifically red roses, are the most traditional.
Americans spend about $2 billion on these flowers, and there's a couple different ways that you could give flowers.
Now, you could give a full arrangement of flowers that look very nice and are very in a vase and everything, and look very, very pretty for Valentine's Day.
That's probably the most expensive option.
Then you could give just regular roses, a dozen roses or a dozen flowers.
A dozen is 12, so this could just be a bunch of 12 flowers.
Again, traditionally red roses, but whatever.
That would be slightly less expensive.
Now, the price of flowers, and especially red roses, spikes in general.
If you are buying red roses during February right before Valentine's Day, that is going to be the most expensive time in the year to buy red roses because of this increased demand, but that would be cheaper than buying a full arrangement.
Now, if you don't have a lot of money and you still want to give flowers, you could give just one single rose.
It is still considered to be very romantic.
It's supposed to symbolize that the person you're giving it to is the one person in your life who you truly love.
It's a good option if you don't have a lot of money, if you can't afford the full dozen, you could give a single red rose, and that would still be considered a romantic flower gift.
Overall, when we're talking about gifts, it's estimated that 40 % of chocolate and flowers is sold in the two days before Valentine's Day.
I can say from experience, I am the type of person who likes to go grocery shopping late at night when there's not a very large crowd.
So maybe 9 o 'clock in the evening or 10 o 'clock in the evening is when I would go grocery shopping.
And one year I went grocery shopping the night before Valentine's Day.
I didn't mean to, I wasn't doing it on purpose, but I realized that Valentine's Day was the next day.
And when I was in the grocery store, there was a constant flow of men who were coming into the grocery store, stopping at the card section and picking out a card, and then going to the flower section and buying flowers and then leaving.
There was a bunch of men just constantly, a constant stream, we would say.
One man would come in by cards and by flowers and then he would go pay and leave, and then another man would come in and buy cards and maybe balloons or maybe some chocolate.
And it was just one after the other after the other.
So it was kind of funny to see how all of these men had forgotten or put off until the last minute their Valentine's Day gifts for their significant other.
Now, of course, there is some pushback to all of this commercialization of Valentine's Day.
Some people don't like to go out on Valentine's Day.
Just like I said, I don't like to go out on Valentine's Day.
And of course, people are a little bit annoyed with the constant gift buying and having to purchase more things in this consumer culture of always having to give gifts for the significant people in your life.
Of course, you don't have to buy something for someone if you're in a relationship.
But I would suggest if you are in a relationship, discuss that ahead of time.
Make sure you know that the person you're in the relationship with is okay with not exchanging gifts, that they're not expecting something because for sure you don't want to show up on Valentine's Day without a gift when your significant other was expecting one.
And with that, we have reached the end of this episode.
A reminder that you can look in the description of this episode and find a vocabulary list of the words and phrases that I used during this episode.
This list includes the definitions.
So if there are any words or phrases that are unfamiliar to you, that are new terms that you have not seen before, please take them and incorporate them into whatever system you are using to learn vocabulary.
Whether it's Anki, Link, the Gold List, Flashcards, whatever method it is that you are using, please take these terms and put them into your system.
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