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In the Fact File section we bring you a new collection of quick facts each week. (Click on the links below for more facts)

 
 

Special Valentine's Day Fact File

2701/ The word 'Honeymoon' first appears in the 16th century. The honey is a reference to the sweetness of a new marriage. And the moon is not a reference to the lunar-based month, but rather a bitter acknowledgment that this sweetness, like a full moon, would quickly fade.

2702/ "Getting a Valentine" in criminal jargon means to receive a one-year jail sentence.

2703/ The heart is the most common symbol of romantic love. Ancient cultures believed the human soul lived in the heart. Others thought it to be the source of emotion and intelligence. Some believed the heart embodied a man's truth, strength and nobility. The heart may be associated with love because the ancient Greeks believed it was the target of Eros, known as Cupid to the Romans. Anyone shot in the heart by one of Cupid's arrows would fall hopelessly in love. Because the heart is so closely linked to love, it's red colour is thought to be the most romantic.

2704/ Your heart weighs approximately 11 ounces, is a little larger than your fist, and beats approximately 4000 times an hour.

2705/ Wearing a wedding ring on the third finger of the left hand dates back to ancient Egypt, where it was believed that the vein of love ran from this finger directly to the heart.

2706/ The tradition of a man proposing with a gold ring dates as far back as 860 AD, when Pope Nicholas I stated that a man should give his bride a gold ring to show his personal financial sacrifice for her hand in marriage. This tradition has lasted until today, except marketers have stated a requirement of two months' salary, including a big diamond! (Men did not start wearing wedding rings until the early 1900's.)

2707/ A ring has been included in wedding ceremonies since the 12th century. Pope Innocent the Third ordained that marriages had to take place in church and that a wedding ring should be exchanged during the service.

2708/ The longest engagement on record was Octavio Guillen and Adriana Martinez. After "dating" for 67 years, they finally got married. They were both 82.

2709/ The Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare's lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet every Valentine's Day.

2710/ The term "to wear your heart on your sleeve" originated in the Middle Ages when young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their Valentines would be which they would then wear pinned on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.

2711/ A Los Angeles man was arrested in 1981 for sneaking under the tables at the university library and painting women's toenails.

2712/ In Tibet there's a courting custom called t'lao mao hui. A man steals the hat of a woman he fancies, and if she likes him, she visits him to get it back.

2713/ Harvard University studies show that, when domestic differences arise, it's usually the spouse who does the most talking who gets his (or her) way.

2714/ Ronald Reagan made his screen debut in 1937 with the film, Love is in the Air.

2715/ When Gore Vidal was asked if the first person he had sex with was male or female, he apparently replied that he had been too polite to ask.

2716/ A survey conducted at Iowa State Collge in 1969 suggests that a parent's stress at the time of conception plays a major role in determining a baby's sex. The child tends to be of the same sex as the parent who is under less stress.

2717/ During the Middle Ages in England and France there was a custom among nobles, kings and peasants known as the droit du seigneur. When any of the subjects of a great lord married (be he the noble of a King or the peasant of a noble), the lord himself had the privilege of deflowering the bride. Although in the later Middle Ages this right was rarely exploited, it was a common part of the marriage ritual in earlier days.

2718/ The Roman Emperor Nero married his male slave Scorus in a public ceremony.

2719/ In the marriage ceremony of the ancient Incas, the couple were considered officially wed when they took off their sandals and handed them to each other.

2720/ When asked whether they would rather have sex or go shopping, 57% of women chose the mall.

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