Today's Valentine's CultureQuiz: All You Need is Love.
The famous Beatles song may have had said it all, but how love, caring and kindness is celebrated...especially on Valentine's Day... is different around the world.
The western St. Valentine’s Day tradition of celebrating romantic love has morphed into various forms as globalization took it on a journey around the world over the last century or so. Today, many cultures have adopted the sentiment of Valentine’s Day and made it their own, in their own unique way, while some cultures actively resist celebrating Valentine’s Day (it is forbidden in Saudi Arabia, for example). So while red roses and chocolates may be the way some of us celebrate this day, Valentine’s Day in many other cultures can look very different. And may even, in fact, be celebrated on a completely different day (there are many “Valentine’s Days” celebrated in South Korea, for example: 14 May is “Day of Roses”, 14 June is “Day of Kisses”, 14 December is “Day of Hugs, etc.).
So I thought it might be fun this Valentine’s Day to have a Valentine’s Day Culture Quiz, and see if you can correctly identify the Valentine’s Day tradition with the correct country! Below, are five Valentine’s Day traditions from around the world, with multiple country choices to choose from (but only one country is the correct answer!) If you haven’t already subscribed to my Substack newsletter, you can do so right here, right now, and see how many correct answers you got! Here you go…
In this country, sentiments of love are traditionally exchanged by lovers on 25 January, in the form of exquisitely carved wooden spoons:
a. Denmark
b. Canada (Newfoundland)
c. Latvia
d. Wales
In this country, before presenting fresh-picked flowers to your loved one, partners traditionally
wash their faces with snow (for good luck):
a. Mongolia
b. Finland
c. Romania
d. Hungary
In this country, couples traditionally would walk barefoot together in the early morning snow to witness birds “proposing” to each other in the early spring:
a. Aotearoa (New Zealand)
b. Belarus
c. Slovenia
d. Iceland
In this country, men who have received gifts from women on 14 February, may reciprocate by giving a gift to the woman on “White Day” (March 14):
a. Japan
b. Kazakhstan
c. Uzbekistan
d. Tajikistan
In this country, single women traditionally would place five bay leaves under their pillow in the hope of producing a dream that would identify their future husband:
a. England
b. Lithuania
c. Moldova
d. Spain
How did you do? See below for the correct answers, and I hope you have a loving and wonderful St Valentine’s Day! Join us tomorrow for our CultureTalk chat where we’ll share our most unusual Valentine’s experiences from around the world!
CORRECT QUIZ ANSWERS: (How did you do?)…
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