Greeting cards, as usual, will be the most common Valentine's Day gifts. Fifty-two percent of U.S. consumers plan to send at least one, according to the National Retail Federation survey.
The Greeting Card Association, an industry trade group, says about 190 million Valentine's Day cards are sent each year. And that figure does not include the hundreds of millions of cards schoolchildren exchange.
"Giving your sweetheart or someone [else] a Valentine's Day card is a deep-seated cultural tradition in the United States," said association spokesperson Barbara Miller. "We don't see that changing."
The first Valentine's Day card was sent in 1415 from France's Duke of Orléans to his wife when he was a prisoner in the Tower of London following the Battle of Agincourt, according to the association.
During the Revolutionary War, Valentine's Day cards—mostly handwritten notes—gained popularity in the U.S. Mass production started in the early 1900s.
Hallmark got in the game in 1913, according to spokesperson Sarah Kolell. Since then—perhaps not coincidentally—the market for Valentine's Day cards has blossomed beyond lovers to include parents, children, siblings, and friends.
Valentine's Day Candy: Cash Cow
An estimated 50.5 percent of U.S. consumers will exchange Valentine's Day candy in 2012, according to the retail federation survey—adding up to about a sweet billion dollars in sales, the National Confectioners Association says.
About 75 percent of that billion is from sales of chocolate, which has been associated with romance at least since Mexico's 15th- and 16th-century Aztec Empire, according to Susan Fussell, a spokesperson with the association.
Fifteenth-century Aztec emperor Moctezuma I believed "eating chocolate on a regular basis made him more virile and better able to serve his harem," she said.
But there's nothing chocolaty about Valentine's Day's most iconic candy: those demanding, chalky little hearts emblazoned "BE MINE," "KISS ME," "CALL ME."
About eight billion candy hearts were made in 2009, the association says—enough to stretch from Rome, Italy, to Valentine (map), Arizona, and back again 20 times.
What Is Love? Evolution and Infatuation
Valentine's Day is all about love. But what, exactly, is that?
Helen Fisher is an anthropologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey and author of several books on love, including Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love.
Fisher breaks love into three distinct brain systems that enable mating and reproduction:
- Sex drive
- Romantic love (obsession, passion, infatuation)
- Attachment (calmness and security with a long-term partner)
These are brain systems, Fisher said, and all three play a role in love. They can operate independently, but people crave all three for an ideal relationship.
"I think the sex drive evolved to get you out there looking for a range of partners," she said.
"I think romantic love evolved to enable you to focus your mating energy on just one at a time, and attachment evolved to tolerate that person at least long enough to raise a child together as a team."
Valentine's Day, Fisher added, used to encompass only two of these three brain systems: sex drive and romantic love.
But "once you start giving the dog a valentine, you are talking about a real expression of attachment as well as romantic love."
cash cow - 财源
confectioner - 甜品店
romance - 罗曼史
virile - 有男子气概的
harem - 女眷，后宫
iconic - 符号的，图标的
chalky - 苍白的，粉质的
emblazon - 装饰，颂扬
stretch - 伸展
infatuation - 热恋，迷恋
anthropologist - 人类学家
obsession - 执着
attachment - 爱情，附件
calmness - 冷静
crave - 渴望
tolerate - 忍耐
encompass - 包括
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