On Valentine's Day, it’s the perfect occasion to show all your affection to your loved ones. But, do you know when is Valentine's Day and why is Valentine's Day celebrated on the 14th of February? Find, in just one place, some interesting information about this festivity and lots of creative graphic resources for your unique projects!
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Love
Feel the chemicals of love spread into your creative projects making good use of this floaty collection of love photos, impatiently waiting to prosper your Valentine’s day social media campaigns, or perhaps you want to send a message to a special someone.
Kiss
Capture the magic of love thanks to this stunning collection of kiss photos. Download them to add a touch of romance to your social media posts, create heartfelt greeting cards, or simply cherish beautiful moments.
Couple
Capture the essence of love and togetherness with this enchanting collection of couple photos. These tender images are perfect for celebrating special moments, expressing affection, and conveying the beauty of companionship. Let your heart flutter with these photos!
Romantic
Are you planning a special date night or creating a heartfelt gift for your loved one? Utilize these romantic photos to bring love and passion to every moment. These images capture the essence of romance, making them perfect for conveying your deepest feelings.
Valentine’s Day cards
We’ve got you covered – if you’re stuck on what to write on a Valentine’s card, have a look at our romantic designs and let your feelings flow. Discover hundreds of original and creative cards at your fingertips with Freepik!
Valentine’s Day backgrounds
Carry the love always with you by using any of these Valentine’s Day backgrounds from Freepik’s collection. Heart, roses, and romantic drawings will fill your screens! Have a look at them and pick your favorite one from this creative selection of vectors and images.
Valentine’s Day drawings
Looking for some inspiration? Scroll through this collection of lovely Valentine’s Day drawings and pick your favorite ones! Discover thousands of different photos or vectors, and download your favorite ones within a few clicks.
Valentine's Day wallpapers
Indulge in the spirit of romance with these enchanting Valentine's Day wallpapers. These wallpapers feature captivating designs that celebrate love in all its forms, so they are perfect for setting the mood on your phone, computer, or tablet.
Symbols
Heart
Cupid
Roses
Gifts
Hearts are everywhere during this special day. This one is the first symbol we all have in mind when we think about romanticism, passion, and definitely, Valentine’s Day. But do you know its early origins? Let’s take a time machine and travel back to Ancient Egypt and Greece, where the doctors truly believed that human emotions, including love and affection, emerged from the heart. There are also some connections with Christianism, as we can find this figure in antique religious illustrations. Its representation has evolved throughout the centuries, and its picture has nothing to do with this vital organ we all have!
According to Roman mythology, Cupid is known as the god of love and is the son of Venus, goddess of beauty, and Mars, god of war. A popular legend from Ancient times says that whoever is struck by one of his arrows will instantly fall in love with the first person he sees. Cupid represents love at first sight, and its figure has inspired some of the greatest artists in History. In the Greek tradition, we can also find his counterpart, called Eros, which is frequently characterized by carrying a veil in his eyes – that’s where the famous expression, “love is blind”, comes from. Did you know this?
Roses reign as the most famous Valentine’s Day flowers. Giving a bouquet of red roses it’s considered one of the most romantic gestures. These beautiful flowers are a well-known and powerful symbol to express pure, romantic love, and have been associated with passion or romance for centuries. We have to travel back to ancient Roman and Greek mythology to find the first significant connection with this feeling: Aphrodite, the goddess of love. In the Victorian era, in the 19th century, these beautiful flowers were also given as public displays of affection. Curious fact: these unique flowers are also associated with English royalty under the emblem known as the "Tudor Rose".
Giving and receiving Saint Valentine’s Day gifts is an ancient custom. Showers of bouquets, cards, and chocolates seems to be a tradition originated in the United Kingdom. Jack Valentine went door to door knocking and leaving some treats for kids in Norfolk–although they got scared from time to time. In Slovenia, Saint Valentine’s Day marks the arrival of the first Spring blossoms, so the Saint is said to give flowers and life to citizens as a present. Today, people exchange gifts as tokens of love: they express their deep feelings for their partner by giving little presents and the most delicious chocolates. Do you have your Saint Valentine’s Day gifts ready?
Fiery pink is one of the most usual Valentine’s Day colors. It is all about emotions, passion, and, of course, love. Even though Valentine’s Day palette color is a wide range, this is one of the first colors that come into our minds when thinking of the most romantic day of the year. There are many reasons why it is associated with this day: fiery pink is the color of playfulness, assurance, and tenderness . It is also associated with joy, desire, and passion, something that is very present in romantic relationships too. This color can also express other emotions quite different from love, such as confidence, liveliness, or even self-assurance.
Valentine's Day is a marked date for every couple worldwide. On this special festivity, tons of chocolates, flowers, and postcards are gifted to our loved ones. Nowadays, we have the conception that this is a pure commercial day, but what is the origin of Valentine’s Day? It's quite hard to establish a certain starting point for this festivity. There are some pieces of evidence that Valentine's Day has some dark origins, but for Christians, it all starts in the 3rd century, when the figure of St Valentine appeared. In any case, if you want to discover more about it – just keep reading!
Discovering the Early origins of Valentine’s Day: Lupercalia
Some historical currents place the early origin of Valentine’s Day in this ancient pagan festival, whose origins can be traced back to some centuries before Christ. It means “Festival of the Wolf”, and was celebrated in part in honor of Lupa, the she-wolf who breastfed the founders of Rome, Romulus, and Remus. Every February 15, a group of priests called “Luperci” would gather near the Lupercal cave on Mount Palatine. What happened here had nothing to do with the festivity we know today, as this festival was full of sacrifices and rituals that served to ward off evil spirits and invoke fertility.
Claudius II’s Law and Valentine’s execution
Under the rule of Roman emperor Claudius II “the Gothic”, a restrictive law was enacted, where marriage to young soldiers was forbidden. Valentine, a former doctor who converted to Christianity and turned a priest, went against this law and officiated secret weddings. After being discovered, he was arrested and imprisoned. There, the officer challenged him to make a miracle: to restore his daughter Julia her sight. Despite achieving this, Valentine was executed on February 14, 269. Before his tragic final, he sent a farewell letter to his beloved Julia, signing it with “From your Valentine”.
Pope Gelasius I and Saint Valentine
Pope Gelasius, I marked a before and after in the feast of St. Valentine. This celebration arose with the firm intention of ending the violent pagan feast of Lupercalia – and so it was. The festivity that commemorated the life and work of St. Valentine was first celebrated in the year 492, consolidating in 496, during the papacy of Gelasius I, who finally ended this ancient feast. For a thousand years, this festivity was included in the Christian calendar, until 1965, when Pope Paul VI, the head of the Church, removed it, considering its history more a legend than a reality.
Times change, and this festivity is also modernized
Do you know when was the first St. Valentine’s postcard created? Its history is older than you think: it all started in 1415, when the Duke of Orleans, imprisoned in the Tower of London, sent a postcard to his beloved wife. In the United States, they became popular after the Revolutionary War and started to be mass-produced during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The rest is history: nowadays, this romantic festivity is full of creative marketing and products of all kinds, from lovely teddy bears to beautiful letters, all designed to show our love to our partners, family, or friends!
Now you’ve found out the origins of the most romantic holiday of all, let’s learn more about how it is celebrated around the world today! From America, to Europe, or Asia, we’ll be travelling to different places to discover some amazing peculiarities and satisfy your curiosity. Will you join us on this exciting journey?
The most romantic gifts can be found here! Lots of flowers, balloons, heart-shaped candies, and delicious chocolates fill the streets in every city in the United States each 14th of February. Since the last century, exchanging romantic postcards has been a constant between couples, and this tradition has evolved. Right after Christmas and the spectacular New Year’s Day, every store gets repleted of Valentine’s greeting cards and postcards, lovely decorations, or beautiful flowers. On this day, they don’t only celebrate romantic love, but it also exalts the great value of friendship and family. It’s also the perfect occasion to go to the cinema and see a romantic comedy or have a special dinner in a fancy restaurant. There are endless possibilities!
“Bem-vindos!” In this Latin American country, Valentine's Day is quite different. This festivity takes place every June 12, on the eve of a feast in honor of the Portuguese Saint Anthony of Padua, and it’s known as “Dia dos Namorados”. This tradition spread directly from the Iberian Peninsula to Brazil, a country with a strong Catholic presence nowadays. The idea of celebrating a holiday around love originated in the middle of the 20th century. But, far from being encouraged by pure romanticism, we owe it to the publicist João Dória who, in 1949, launched a marketing campaign to increase sales in June. He chose this date and a powerful slogan, which made this celebration continue to this day. Even so, some things stay the same: roses and gifts are still the protagonists of this festivity!
In this beautiful place, Valentine’s Day is known as “Día de los Enamorados”, and like in other countries, gifts are the main protagonists! Roses, boxes of chocolates, or romantic novels are the favorite gifts for this day. These are usually accompanied by Valentine's Day cards, in which couples write down some words of love and affection to each other. Candlelight dinners, a romantic stroll, or a cinema date are usual – any excuse is a good one to spend time together, right? For some years now, on February 13, they celebrate the so-called "Singles' Day", a tradition that emerged in China to normalize being single and end the pressure of finding a romantic partner. Also, as a sort of joke, February 14 is known as "San Solterín" among young people in this Mediterranean country!
This paradisiacal island has some peculiarities to show you Get ready – now it’s time to travel to the Caribbean Sea! Do you know when this festivity was first celebrated in Cuba? We have to travel a few centuries back, to the 14th of February 1841, when “La Valentina”, a “contradanza” directed by Tomás Buelta y Flores, was first premiered at Tacón Theater in Havana. Since then, this celebration has been steeped in the United States tradition, as they also embrace both romantic and friendship love. Valentine’s Day is also the date many Cubans decide to give their partners an engagement ring as a sign of pure and true love, and lots of couples fill the famous “Malecón” in Havana, promising each other eternal love. And of course, there’s always room for some delicious chocolates, postcards, teddy bears, or romantic dinners!
Attention travelers: the last stop is coming! It’s time to celebrate Valentine’s Day in Japan. In this country, only women give gifts, more specifically, just one: chocolate! Depending on how fond you are of the person, you give them one type or another – for example, you should gift your partner with the so-called honmei-choko, but there’s also room for family and friends. Moving on to China, the “Qi-Xi Festival” has been celebrated as Valentine’s Day since the times of the Han Dynasty, but this tradition has lost momentum. Here they also exchange lots of gifts, but take note: you shouldn’t give either umbrellas or shoes, as they mean you’re breaking the relationship! Another particularity of the continent is that every March 14 takes place the “White Day”, where men are the ones who must give white chocolate to women.
