Love was in the air Sunday as couples celebrated Valentine’s Day.
Each year, nearly 150 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged, and more than half of the U.S. population celebrates this occasion by exchanging these cards, according to the History Channel’s website.
Although exchanging cards is popular, couples celebrate Valentine’s Day in many different ways.
“My boyfriend brought me Taco Bell in bed, so if that’s not cute then I don’t know what is,” said recent Baylor graduate Kayleigh Love. She and her boyfriend have been together for nine months.
Many couples tend to celebrate the day with a meal and some kind of activity.
“My boyfriend took me to Dallas and we ate at food trucks and got to see “The Great Gatsby” playing in the middle of the city. It was really cute,” said junior Lauren Mosley. “It was our first together.”
Other couples get a little more creative.
“My boyfriend adopted a penguin from the Fort Worth Zoo in my honor and we get to go to the zoo whenever we want to see them,” said Baylor senior Alexandra Tolar.
Valentine’s Day is special to many couples because it’s one day that is set aside to shower the one you love with flowers, candy, teddy bears and pure affection.
“I think Valentine’s Day is cute. Blake and I treat it as a fun day, not the most serious day in our relationship. We get really creative in our dates and keep it fun,” Tolar said.
“It’s a good excuse to remind my boyfriend how much I love him,” Mosley said.
Even though some are in love with Valentine’s Day, others do not share that same love for the holiday.
“I think it’s stupid that society has designated a specific day to showing the person you love how much you love them. If you love someone, you should tell and show them all the time,” said Coventy, Conn., sophomore Kristina Bilyeu.
There are several popular theories as to how Valentine’s Day came about. Some ideas come from the Catholic Church. One legend says that Valentine was a priest who defeated Emperor Claudius after the emperor banned young men from getting married because single men made better soldiers. After defeating the emperor, Valentine continued to perform marriage ceremonies for young couples.
Another legend says that Valentine helped prisoners escape from torturous Roman prisons. It is thought that while imprisoned, Valentine sent a letter to his lover, signed “From your Valentine,” leading to the popular gesture of sending or exchanging cards on Valentine’s Day.
There is also the theory that Valentine’s Day stems from the pagan holiday of Lupercalia. The Christian Church banned the holiday, a fertility festival, in the fifth century after the pope named Feb. 14 St. Valentine’s Day.
