MARY BRASWELL: Looking Back at Valentine’s Day

Each week Albany Herald researcher Mary Braswell looks for interesting events, places and people from the past. You can contact her at (229) 888-9371 or [email protected]. Follow @ABH_MBraswell on Twitter.

Love is in the air today as Valentine’s Day is celebrated. Here is a look at things associated with the day.

A LITTLE HISTORY

— In ancient Rome, Lupercalia, a fertility festival was celebrated in mid-February.

— Between 200-300 at least two Christian clerics with the name Valentine were martyred.

— Pope Gelasius declared Feb. 14 as the day to honor St. Valentine in the late 400s.

— In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week.

— In the 1300s, St. Valentine’s Day became associated with love and romance.

— Europe embraced the practice of exchanging Valentine’s Day cards in the 1600s.

— In the 1840s, the first mass-produced valentines were introduced in America.

MANY BELIEVE …

The most popular theory about Valentine’s Day origin is that Emperor Claudius II didn’t want Roman men to marry during wartime. Bishop Valentine went against his wishes and performed secret weddings. For this, Valentine was jailed and executed in 270. While in jail, he wrote a note to the jailer’s daughter, signing it “from your Valentine.”

TODAY IN THE U.S. …

— Of all adults, 62 percent say they celebrate Valentine’s Day.

— In the week leading up to the big day, $448 million is spent on candy.

— Enough chocolate will sell during Valentine’s Day week to weigh 58 million pounds.

— Flowers or plants are purchased by 23 percent of American adults. Of that number, 61 percent of buyers are men.

— On average, a man spends $150 for his sweetheart(s) while a woman spends about $74.

— An astounding $8.6 million is spent on sparkling wine for Valentine’s Day, about 174,000 gallons during the week.

ABOUT THAT CHOCOLATE …

— The scientific name for the tree that chocolate comes from, Theobroma cacao, means “food of the gods.”

— It takes a almost a full year for a cocoa tree to produce enough pods to make 10 standard-sized Hershey bars.

— Chocolate was consumed as a liquid, not a solid, for most of its history. The Aztec emperor Montezuma II drank more than 50 cups of chocolate every day.

— Hershey’s makes 70 million Kisses every day, and enough annually to make a 300,000-mile-long line of the candies.

— During the Revolutionary War, soldiers were sometimes paid in chocolate.

— The film “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” was financed by Quaker Oats to promote its new Wonka Bar candy. This is also why the film is called “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” instead of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” like the book it’s based on.

— Andes Candies were originally called “Andy’s Candys,” after creator George Andrew Kanelos, but he changed the name after he realized men didn’t want to buy their wives or girlfriends chocolates with another man’s name on them.

— A 2013 study found that the scent of chocolate in a bookstore made customers 40 percent more likely to buy cookbooks or romance novels, and 22 percent more likely to buy books of any genre.

— The chocolate industry is worth approximately $110 billion per year.

— Chocolate gives a more intense mental high and gets the heart pounding more than kissing does.

— Americans eat 2.8 billion pounds of candy annually. About half of it is chocolate.

— Eating chocolate can help prevent tooth decay and works as an anti-bacterial agent.

— In 1930, Ruth Wakefield, out of baker’s chocolate, mixed broken piece of Nestle chocolate into her cookie dough, expecting the chocolate to be absorbed and create chocolate cookies. Instead, she accidentally created chocolate chip cookies, and later sold the idea to Nestle in return for a lifetime supply of chocolate.

KIDS’ TAKES …

“Love is when you tell a boy you like his shirt, then he wears it every day.” — Noelle, age 7

“One of you should know how to write a check. Because, even if you have tons of love, there’s still going to be a lot of bills to pay.” — Ava, age 9

“Lovers will be just staring at each other and their food will get cold. Other people care more about the food.” — Brad, age 8

“Love is what makes you smile when you are tired.” — Terri, age 4

“I know one reason kissing was created. It makes you feel warm all over, and they didn’t always have electric heat or fireplaces or even stoves in their houses.” — Gina, age 8

“No person really decides before they grow up who they’re going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you’re stuck with.” — Kirsten, age 10

“Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.” — Tommy, age 6

“Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and doesn’t think it’s gross.” — Mark, age 6

LOVE SONGS …

“Love Me Tender” — Elvis Presley (1956)

“You Send Me” — Sam Cooke (1957)

“My Girl” — The Temptations (1964)

“I Got You Babe” —Sonny and Cher (1965)

“When a Man Loves a Woman” — Percy Sledge (1966)

“The Look of Love” —Dusty Springfield (1967)

“Never My Love” — The Association (1967)

“Something” — The Beatles (1969)

“The First Time Ever I saw Your Face” — Roberta Flack (1972)

“My Love” — Paul McCartney and Wings (1973)

“I Will Always Love You” — Dolly Parton (1974)/Whitney Houston (1992)

QUIK QUIZ ANSWER

(d) 22 pounds. FYI: Chocolate contains high levels of a powerful stimulant called theobromine. Poisoning by theobromine can cause heart failure, seizures, acute kidney damage and dehydration.

How much chocolate would an adult have to ingest in a short time for it to be fatal?

a) 12 pounds

b) 15 pounds

c) 17 pounds

d) 22 pounds

Answer is at the end of the column.