Here are some things about Valentine’s Day you may not have known.

St. Valentine is the patron saint of lovers and engaged couples. He’s also the patron saint of travelers, young people, plague, bee keepers and epilepsy -- something he was believed to have had.

Teachers receive the most Valentine’s Day cards, followed by children, mothers and wives. Elementary school kids exchange more than 650 million Valentine’s Day cards each year.

Americans spend $277 million a year on Valentine’s Day cards. That’s second only to Christmas.

Richard Cadbury introduced the idea of a box of chocolates for Valentine’s Day in the late 1800’s.

Nearly 189 million roses are given as gifts on Valentine’s Day each year.

A kiss on Valentine’s Day is considered good luck for the entire year.

The post office in Loveland, Colo. processes more than 300,000 Valentine’s Day cards each year with a special heart stamp cancellation.

In 2010, 39,897 people in Mexico City must have had good luck all year because they set the record for the largest group kiss.

Japan has a different custom for Valentine’s Day. It’s the women who buy Valentine’s Day chocolates for the men -- kind of a day for the women to say to a guy “I’m interested.” A month later, on March 14 on what’s called White Day, the men respond if they’re interested. It almost sounds like Dyngus Day with the pussy willows and the sprinkling of water.

Beginning in 2011, Iran banned anything to do with Valentine’s Day – cards, gifts, candy, teddy bears. And some people in India and Pakistan protest Valentine’s Day because they say it’s a day when Western culture satisfies its lust for sex.

An old tradition in Germany had girls planting onions in a pot on Valentine’s Day and next to the pot they placed the name of boys they knew. They believed they would marry the boy whose name was nearest the first onion to grow.

You know those conversation hearts candies? They have a shelf life of five years.

Famous people born on Valentine’s Day include Jack Benny, Jimmy Hoffa, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Bills quarterbacks Jim Kelly and Drew Bledsoe, and former Sabres defenseman Richard Smehlik.

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