• .Valentines orginally were a piece of folded paper bearing the name of a boy or girl, drawn by lot at parties on the eve of St Valentine's Day (14 February).  The one named on the slip of paper was to be the sweetheart of the drawer for the year.

• Other traditions associated with St Valentine's Day relate to the first young man or woman one chances to meet on St Valentine's Day.  The custom was to kiss this 'first-met' and thus they were your special valentine for the year.
• The fancy Victorian valentine card was beflowered and befilled with ribbons and paper lace.  It bore printed or written verses couching a love greeting or proposal.

• Eating cherries?  How many stones are there on your plate when you have finished? Count them using the following words to determine the kind of man you will marry:

• Does your sweetheart love you?  Pull the petals off a daisy until they are all gone, reciting the following words:

• Peel an apple or an orange so that the peel comes off in one whole spiral strip.  Then throw the peel over your shoulder. It will land in the shape of a letter and this is the initial of the one you will marry!
• If you have white flecks in your fingernails check to see if there are any on the fourth finger (the one next to the little finger).  On your left hand, this indicates a sweetheart in the future, and on your right hand a sweetheart in the past.  Each finger represents a different fortune: the rhyme you use to remember what each one means starts at the thumb, and goes:

• To see how compatible you are with your loved one, write out both of your names in full.  Then cross out all the letters that are common to both names.  eg. If one name has the letter 'l' three times, cross out only two 'l's in each name.  You will be left with a certain number of letters for each name.  Count these up using the following words to determine your attitudes to each other:

• Write out ['your name' loves 'his/her name'].  Count and write down the number of 'l's in the names, then 'o's, then ''v's, then 'e's, then 's', ending up with five numbers, eg, 54045.  Add each together eg. 5+4, then 4+0, then 0+4, then 4+5  ---> keep adding until you arrive at two numbers. For this example the answer is 99. This is the percentage of the pair's compatablility in love!

• Throwing a loved one's article of clothing into a fire is said to cause an absent lover to burn with desire.
• In ancient Denmark, lovers pledged fidelity by sprinkling blood into the footprint of each other.
• In an old Slavic tradition, the earth of a sweetheart's footprint was dug up and a marigold planted in it.  The marigold flourished until either one of the other of the sweetheart's love failed.
• In Sweden on Midsummer's Night (24 June), young girls go into the meadow and pick seven different flowers.  They make these into a bouquet and put them under their pillow.  They are then supposed to dream about their future husband.

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