Q 01/05

Legend says the imprisoned Saint Valentine signed a farewell note 'from your Valentine' to whom?

A) The emperor's wife

B) His own sister

C) His jailer's daughter

D) A fellow prisoner

Answer · why

C) His jailer's daughter

His jailer's daughter: the story, a later embellishment of the saint's legend, says he had befriended the girl and signed the note before his executio...

Q 02/05

What Roman festival of February 15 is often (if doubtfully) cited as a forerunner of Valentine's Day?

A) Lupercalia

B) Saturnalia

C) Bacchanalia

D) Floralia

Answer · why

A) Lupercalia

Lupercalia, held on February 15, was a Roman purification and fertility rite; it had died out by about 500, and Valentine's Day did not become a day o...

Q 03/05

Who is credited with writing the first known Valentine's message while imprisoned in the Tower of London?

A) Geoffrey Chaucer

B) Charles, Duke of Orleans

C) Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder

D) Sir Walter Raleigh

Answer · why

B) Charles, Duke of Orleans

Charles, Duke of Orleans was taken prisoner at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 and held in England for more than twenty years, writing much of his poe...

Q 04/05

Which poet first linked Valentine's Day with romantic love in his poem 'Parlement of Foules'?

A) Dante Alighieri

B) John Gower

C) Francesco Petrarch

D) Geoffrey Chaucer

Answer · why

D) Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer pictured birds meeting on 'Seynt Valentynes day' to choose their mates; no earlier record ties the saint's day to romance, so he may ...

Q 05/05

Valentine's Day is the second-biggest holiday for greeting cards in the US, behind which one?

A) Mother's Day

B) Easter

C) Christmas

D) Thanksgiving

Answer · why

C) Christmas

Christmas is the only holiday that sells more cards, and the Valentine's tally does not even count the packs of cards that pupils swap in class.