Seeing it's that time of year were it's acceptable to give plant's reproductive organs to each other, has it occurred to anyone why on earth we do this? What is really behind all of this chocolate exchanging and card sending? To find out well, I guess we'll have to read some lame old history lesson or what not.

You smell that?

February is known as a month of romance and affection. Which have Christian and Roman influences. But who really is Valentine or Valentinus? (The second name sounds cooler.) So, apparently he was a saint that was martyred. Any-who, Valentine served some time durring the third century in Rome. Emperor Claudius II found out that young men that didn't have a family made better soldiers. Kind of like a super soldier thing going on.

You've been Van Damme'd.

So the jerk made a decree upon all young males; telling them they couldn't marry. Valentine saw this and decided to act against it. As the legend goes Valentine secretly performed marriages for the young lovers. How touching. Valentine was eventually caught and was put to death.

Another story suggests that Valentine was incarcerated and that he sent the first "valentine" to a lover. The lover was the jailor's daughter ironically. In the letter he sent her before his death he signed " from your valentine." An expression that is still used till this very day.

"Here I want to give you this. Just don't puke."

Aside from companies making a ton of money off of suckers, there is on origin to how this chocolate craze started. Chocolate has been referred as the "food of the gods" by the Aztec
Indians. They believed it had aphrodisiac properties. Christopher Columbus brought chocolate to the queen after visiting the Americas. Fast forward a bit and chocolate became commercially available to everyone by the 1800s. In 1861 some dude named Richard Cadbury made the first ever heart-shaped box for Valentine’s day.

"Oh, man I can feel the aphrodisiacs kickin' in."

Valentine greetings became popular in the Middle Ages. Although written Valentine's weren't given until 1400. The United States aren't the only ones that celebrate this day of romance. Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Australia and, France are in it too. By the 1900s printed cards made hand written letters obsolete due to printing technology. Also postage rates were low which increased the popularity of sending the greetings. Now a days an estimated of 1 billion Valentine's Day cards are given out each year. Women actually purchase 85% of all valentines. Maybe for a change the men should be doing the card purchasing. Oh, and happy Valentine's Day.