VALENTINE’S Day has been a tradition since the pre-Christian era, and has roots in several different legends that have found their way to us through the ages. Though there are many stories connected with its history, such as the beheading of St Valentine on February 14, perhaps the most common thing connected with Valentine’s Day is Cupid, usually depicted as a small boy with wings, who carries a bow and arrow.

Although in Greek mythology, Cupid plays a different role. The Greek goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite was the mother of Cupid. Cupid had fallen in love with a human, whose beauty rivalled his mother’s. She did everything in her power to thwart the marriage. Cupid’s lover, Psyche was worshipped for her beauty in her homeland. This drove Aphrodite mad, so she sent a plague and let it be known that it can only be stopped by the sacrifice of Psyche.

Her father tied her up and left her to her death at the hands of a fearsome monster. Cupid saved her and married her. In addition to Aphrodite, Psyche’s sisters were equally jealous. Cupid had made sure that she never saw what he looked like and upon the sisters finding out this information, they persuaded her that Cupid must be a hideous monster. Psyche assured her sisters that they were wrong, but they had put doubt in her mind. She took a candle to Cupid while he was asleep and found he was extremely angelic and “exquisite”. While she was there, she dropped hot wax on him, to which he awoke and flew away. Aphrodite then suffered from a case of “I told you so” syndrome, though agreed to give Psyche a second chance. She set her four difficult tasks and passed the first three with flying colours, though failed the fourth. Cupid rescued her, bringing her to Olympus and was given nectar and ambrosia so she would become immortal. Aphrodite reluctantly reconciled with her pregnant daughter-in-law, who was about to give birth to a grandchild she would dote on.

Did you know?

• Teachers receive the most valentines, followed by kids, mothers, wives and sweethearts.

• Over 50 percent of all Valentine’s Day cards are purchased in the six days prior to the holiday.

• The oldest surviving valentine dates from 1415. It is a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife. At the time, the duke was being held in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt.

• One billion valentines are sent each year worldwide, making it the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas. Women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines.

• Hallmark produced its first valentine in 1913.

• Today, Hallmark employs an 80-person research staff to analyze the sales pattern of previous valentines. That analysis, combined with more than 100,000 annual customer interviews, focus groups and in-store observations, will help create roughly 2,000 cards in Hallmark’s core Valentine’s Day line.

• While Hallmark offers thousands of different cards for Valentine’s Day, one card was the top choice of customers in New York, Los Angeles, and virtually every other city in the country in 2006.

• In Japan, women are expected to give chocolate and other gifts to men on Valentine’s Day. This tradition was started as a marketing campaign by Japanese chocolate companies. Men are not off the hook, unfortunately. They are expected to return the favor on March 14th, commonly known as White Day.

• BBC reports that Shiv Sena, a nationalist political party in India, has spoken out against Valentine’s day, calling it “nothing but a Western onslaught on India’s culture to attract youth for commercial purposes.”

• The Ivory Coast is the world’s largest producer of cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate. In 2001, the U.S. State Department reported child slavery on many cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast. A 2002 report from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture estimated there were 284,000 children working on cocoa farms in hazardous conditions.

• The Catholic Church struck St. Valentine’s Day from its official calendar in 1969.