Valentine’s Day All Around the World

Various Traditions

FINLAND

In Finland: Every year is organized the championship of the "carried of woman". It is an obstacle race in which the husband carries his wife. The one who finishes the race the fastest win the weight of his wife in beer.

ESTONIA

In Estonia: Valentine’s day is all about your friends. Instead of giving your partner a gift, they celebrate friendship.

DENMARK

In Denmark: Men send anonymous poems to women. The notes are signed with one dot for each letter of the man’s name. If the woman guesses who wrote to her, the admirer rewards her with an egg on Easter. And, if she guesses wrong, then she owes him the egg on Easter. This tradition called "Gaekkebrev" actually takes place at Easter.

WALES

In Wales: The Welsh give love spoons on January 25th. It’s wooden spoons with hearts on them. It gives a new meaning to the expression “spooning” with the one you love.

SCOTLAND

In Scotland: there is a pretty good tradition that if you meet a person of the opposite sex during the day (most likely), you can ask her to be her Valentine / Valentine for the day.

BRAZIL

In Brazil: If you believe in fate or luck, celebrate like Brazilian. Place the names of the people you like into a hat and randomly select one, it could be the person you end up marrying.

CHINA

In China: Love seekers visit the matchmaker statue in a temple to find love.

SINGAPORE

In Singapore: The festival of the lovers falls at the same time as the festival of the new Chinese year. It is the 15th of this one that unmarried women write words of love on mandarins before throwing them in the river and making the vows to find the ideal companion.

TAIWAN

In Taiwan: offering 108 roses to a woman on Valentine's Day is equivalent to a request for marriage. It sounds tedious but it's worth it.

JAPAN

In Japan: it’s all about spoiling your man and not the other way around like in Western cultures.