Malaysian Muslims warned against Valentine's Day". The Straits Times. February 13, 2011. Archived from the original on April 29, 2011. in Persian). fararunews. February 19, 2017. Archived from the original on February 16, 2020 . Retrieved February 19, 2020. On the United States mainland, about 190 million Valentine's Day cards are sent each year, not including the hundreds of millions of cards school children exchange. [102]

Since 2009, certain practices pertaining to Valentine's Day (such as giving flowers, cards, or other gifts suggestive of Valentine's Day) are banned in Iran. [189] Iran's Law Enforcement Force prosecutes distributors of goods with symbols associated with Valentine's Day. [190] In 2021, the Prosecutor's Office of Qom, Iran, stated that it will prosecute those who disseminate and provide anti-cultural symbols like those of Valentine's Day. [191] Although Valentine's Day is not accepted or approved by any institution in Iran and has no official status, it is highly accepted among a large part of the population. [192] One of the reasons for Valentine's Day acceptance since the 2000s by the general population is the change in relations between the sexes, and because sexual relationships are no longer strictly limited to be within marriage. [193] See also The custom that only women give chocolates to men may have originated from the translation error of a chocolate-company executive during the initial campaigns. [141] In particular, office ladies give chocolate to their co-workers. Unlike western countries, gifts such as greeting cards, [141] candies, flowers, or dinner dates [142] are uncommon, and most of the gifts-related activity is about giving the right amount of chocolate to each person. [141] Japanese chocolate companies make half their annual sales during this time of the year. [141] George Monger (April 9, 2013). Marriage Customs of the World: An Encyclopedia of Dating Customs and Wedding Traditions, Expanded Second Edition [2 Volumes]. ABC-CLIO. pp.665–671. ISBN 978-1-59884-664-5. Archived from the original on September 14, 2015. Valentine's Day is celebrated in many East Asian countries with Singaporeans, Chinese and South Koreans spending the most money on Valentine's gifts. [92] Americas Latin America Sharma, Satya (1996). "The cultural costs of a globalized economy for India". Dialectical Anthropology. 21 (3–4): 299–316. doi: 10.1007/BF00245771. S2CID 144173442.The earliest description of February 14 as an annual celebration of love appears in the Charter of the Court of Love. The charter, allegedly issued by Charles VI of France at Mantes-la-Jolie in 1400, describes lavish festivities to be attended by several members of the royal court, including a feast, amorous song and poetry competitions, jousting and dancing. [62] Amid these festivities, the attending ladies would hear and rule on disputes from lovers. [63] No other record of the court exists, and none of those named in the charter were present at Mantes except Charles's queen, Isabeau of Bavaria, who may well have imagined it all while waiting out a plague. [62] Valentine poetry In modern times, Hindu and Islamic [124] traditionalists have considered the holiday to be cultural contamination from the West, a result of globalization in India. [118] [120] Shiv Sena and the Sangh Parivar have asked their followers to shun the holiday and the "public admission of love" because of them being "alien to Indian culture". [125] Although these protests are organized by political elites, the protesters themselves are middle-class Hindu men who fear that the globalization will destroy the traditions in their society: arranged marriages, Hindu joint families, full-time mothers, etc. [120] [124] Despite these obstacles, Valentine's Day is becoming increasingly popular in India. [126] BERTA – Eesti rahvakalendri tähtpäevade andmebaas". folklore.ee. Archived from the original on February 19, 2016. These short valentine’s day poems are perfectly silly for kids, and great for classroom use with younger children. In Japan, Morozoff Ltd. introduced the holiday for the first time in 1936, when it ran an advertisement aimed at foreigners. Later, in 1953, it began promoting the giving of heart-shaped chocolates; other Japanese confectionery companies followed suit thereafter. In 1958, the Isetan department store ran a "Valentine sale". Further campaigns during the 1960s popularized the custom. [139] [140]

The storyteller’s grandson in The Princess Bride famously says, “They’re kissing again. Do we have to read the kissing parts?” AFP (February 15, 2018). "Saudi cleric endorses Valentine's Day as 'positive event' ". Dawn.com. Archived from the original on January 15, 2022 . Retrieved January 15, 2022. A 38-minute podcast episode in which the author reads and discusses many of her own love poems, including "Valentine," with a live audience [3:35-6:02]. a b "Valentine's Day spending is global". Mast Media. February 13, 2014. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016.Guinness World Records 2017. Guinness World Records. September 8, 2016. p.90. ISBN 9781910561348. Archived from the original on March 24, 2023 . Retrieved September 20, 2021. Richard Cadbury, eldest son of John Cadbury who founded the now iconic brand, was the first chocolate-maker to commercialize the association between confectionery and romance, producing a heart-shaped box of chocolates for Valentine's Day in 1868 Eye Candy Lt. Col. Johnny Thompson, KCIII's Super Equerry Takes the Cake Beauty, inspiration, friendship, tea. Always Delicious Para quererte". El Periódico de Guatemala. February 10, 2010. Archived from the original on February 14, 2015. Note from Ed: I used the name “Ghazal of Chocolate” for the poem because this Middle Eastern verse form is, as I understand it, pronounced much like the English verb “guzzle.” And I like to guzzle chocolate. Banknote flowers a popular Valentine's gift in Sibu". The Borneo Post. February 14, 2016. Archived from the original on February 10, 2017 . Retrieved February 10, 2017.

Three other authors who made poems about birds mating on St. Valentine's Day around the same years: Otton de Grandson from Savoy, John Gower from England, and a knight called Pardo from Valencia. Chaucer most probably predated all of them; but due to the difficulty of dating medieval works, it is not possible to ascertain which of the four may have influenced the others. [61] Court of love Valentine is not 'haram', says ex-Saudi religious police boss". Arab News. February 15, 2018. Archived from the original on March 24, 2023 . Retrieved January 15, 2022.Vivian Krug Hotchkiss (February 14, 1910). "Emotionscards.com". Emotionscards.com. Archived from the original on August 7, 2011 . Retrieved August 6, 2011. a b Forbes, Bruce David (October 27, 2015). America's Favorite Holidays: Candid Histories. University of California Press. p.54. ISBN 9780520284722. There is no indication in suppressing the Lupercalia, Gelasius put anything else in its place. Much later, in the 1500s, a Cardinal Baronius speculated that Gelasius converted the Lupercalia into the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin (or Candlemas), changing one purification ceremony into another, and many noted authors have repeated this claim. Recent scholarship has refuted Baronius's assertion...there is no evidence that Gelasius advocated a celebration of Valentine's Day as a replacement for the Lupercalia. ... The letter by Gelasius to Andromachus criticizing the Lupercalia contains no reference to Valentine, or Valentine's Day, or any replacement observance. Gammer Gurton's Garland (London, 1784) in I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd ed., 1997), p. 375. Well, young grandson, good love stories are not only about kissing. Neither are good love poems. Sometimes, you see, they are not even about love. They are about chocolate (which is its own kind of love). When used properly, however, they might lead to kissing.*