Valentine’s Day is a tradition celebrated worldwide. Different countries have their own traditions, but Valentine’s Day started the same way for all of us.

Valentine’s Day began with a simple festival in Rome called Lupercalia which celebrated the coming of spring. During this festival, men would pick women’s names from a box. Whoever they picked would become their significant other, and they would sometimes get married. Over the years, Lupercalia became St. Valentine’s Day. Today, we just refer to the rather famous holiday as Valentine’s Day.

On this day in the United States, people share their affection with other people. Some traditions include giving out greeting cards, candy, flowers, and gifts. In Japan, women make the first move on Valentine’s Day. They give men gifts instead of the other way around. In Finland and Estonia on February 14, they celebrate Friends Day. That is considered a day of honoring both friends and significant others. In Ghana, February 14 is National Chocolate Day. In Romania, the tradition is quite different than in the United States. Young men and women pick flowers in the forest and others wash their faces with snow as a sign of good luck. On Valentine’s Day in England, women used to put five leaves under their pillows in hopes they would dream of their future husbands.

No matter what the tradition, old and new, it is a special tradition around the world.