It's the day of flowers, candy, tokens of love and above all, profits for those who sell them. But just where did Valentine's Day begin?
Turns out, historians don't really know. But like all good legends there's no shortage of stories.
The most common seems to concern the Roman feast of Lupercalia, an ancient fertility rite, honouring Juno, the goddess of love and marriage.
On February 14th, the day before the feast began, men would supposedly draw tickets from an urn and be expected to pursue the woman whose name they drew.
A more common and religious explanation concerns Saint Valentine, who was supposedly martyred on February 14th. Ancient texts record the existence of three St. Valentine's but it's not clear how many there really were, or what actually happened to him.
But the favourite story concerns a third century priest named Valentine who defied the Emperor and performed secret marriages for soldiers.
Claudius II had issued an edict forbidding the ceremony because he thought single soldiers would be more willing to fight and die in battle.
When the ruler found out his order had been defied, the priest was sent to jail to await execution. He supposedly sent the jailer's daughter a note before his sentence was carried out, signed 'from your Valentine'.
He was put to death on February 14th, 270 A.D., and legend has it his example of sending a love note has been followed ever since.
Much has changed since then, of course. But this hasn't - couples forget the day at their peril.
Valentine's Day has since become a multi-billion dollar industry but a small token of love presented to your significant other can go a long way from keeping you from becoming ensnared in a fate worse than Claudius II's sentence!