Happy Valentine’s Day from 620 CKRM! Judging by today’s wintery forecast, it’ll be a great night to cuddle up to your sweetheart, eat chocolate, and watch your favourite movies. Valentine’s Day has been around for a long time, possibly since 270 A.D., one year after St. Valentine’s death. Valentine was either a priest or a bishop who would minister to (and show love and affection to) persecuted Christians in the Roman Empire. Many viewed his words as wise, however, not all shared that sentiment and he was martyred for his views, eventually being buried on February 14th 269 A.D..
Small Valentine’s Day celebrations would take place throughout Britain after, but it wasn’t until 1400 when written greetings started to appear thanks to the engagement of then King Richard II to Anne of Bohemia. From there, love was starting to be celebrated everywhere on this day. By 1900 the first Valentine’s Day cards started to go on sale in Canada for the first time.
Today, Canadians will spend over $164 on average for Valentine’s Day gifts, with Albertans and Quebecers spending the most on flowers for their significant others. Three per cent of Canadians will also buy gifts for their pets today and over one billion cards will be exchanged. According to stats, men are more generous than women on February 14th and will actually spend double what women will. Not surprisingly, new couples will spend the most on each other while couples who have been together longer will spend less. 52 per cent of couples will include children in the celebrations today, 45 per cent of men and 44 per cent of women stated they’d prefer the company of one another over a gift, and 38% say they plan on surprising their significant other with a gift.
(Gloria, Cody, and Jeff dazzled listeners with love poetry)
We can’t forget about our own love connection in Saskatchewan either. Every year the community of Love, SK northwest of Nipawin gets hundreds of letters wanting their postage stamp or any other memorabilia.
“We get mail from all over the world. We have a map set up in our post office with little stickers from every place we’ve been contacted that either wants to send their wedding invitations to us and have them stamped with our official stamp or they want to get married here or they want information about the village,” stated Love Mayor Shelley Vallier on 620 CKRM.
Vallier also mentioned the community is a popular place for weddings year round with couples getting hitched at their winter festival, in their community hall, and in their community park. All the weddings meant Love needed an actual wedding chapel.
“We had a building donated from a gentleman in Choiceland, SK. It was the old CPR bunkhouse in Choiceland, so we totally renovated it, gutted the inside of it, and now it looks beautiful,” beamed Vallier.
Whether you’re single or one of the over 15 million couples in Canada, the spirit of the day is what’s important to remember. Just because you’re single, doesn’t mean you can’t spoil yourself or a close friend today! Eat that chocolate, buy yourself flowers, or take yourself out for dinner and, above all, have a HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!
