How Valentine’s Day Created a Retailing Revolution
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Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) -- At the beginning of the 19thcentury, St. Valentine’s Day was of little note in Americanculture. It could easily have faded from the calendar out ofProtestant indifference and civic irrelevance, forgotten rightalong with days dedicated to St. Agnes, St. Anne and any numberof others.
Instead, St. Valentine’s Day suddenly surged in popularityin the 1840s. As Graham’s American Monthly announced in 1849,Feb. 14 “is becoming, nay, it has become, a national holyday.”