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While chocolates, candy and cards are fairly ubiquitous on Valentine's Day, the holiday has taken on some unique traditions in different parts of the globe.



Learn about Japan's "true feeling" chocolates, mass weddings in South Africa, Denmark's "love spoons" and other ways humans celebrate the romantic holiday.

For more, check out great food gifts, the best V-day chocolates and a guide to being single on Valentine's Day.


The Philippines
In towns and cities across the country, thousands of couples participate in mass weddings held on Feb. 14. Most everything -- from the wedding banquet to the venue, and sometimes even the gifts -- is covered by the local government.



A couple takes a selfie as they attend a mass wedding ceremony on Valentine's Day in Manila on Feb. 14, 2020.


Rouelle Umali/Xinhua via Getty


"It feels good to see couples who have been living together for years, but cannot afford even the simplest of wedding ceremonies, finally get married with the help of the municipal government and other sponsors," Lordase Sajonas, a municipal civil registrar in Pangasinan, about 125 miles north of Manila, told Paci*** Daily News in 2017.



"Some of them have been living together for years and already have children but are unable to submit necessary parental documents to their kids' school because they do not have a marriage certi***ate. Plus, the cost of a wedding is so expensive."




















Gh***
The world's second-largest cocoa producer, Gh*** in 2005 declared Feb. 14 to be National Chocolate Day in a bid to boost tourism and domestic consumption of chocolate. 

The initiative was also intended to dissuade young people from having *** by channeling their romantic energy into a gift of chocolate. The goal was "to minimize social vices associated with the celebration of Valentine's Day," tourism minister Barbara Oteng Gyasi said in 2020.



Italy


Baci Perugina are given out on Valentine's Day. The wrapper on the chocolate-covered hazelnuts contains a romantic or affirming message.


Baci Perugina


Chocolate also plays a role in Valentine's Day traditions in Italy, where lovers exchange Baci Perugina -- small, chocolate-covered hazelnuts with romantic quotes printed on their wrapper in different languages. ("Bacio" is the Italian word for kiss.)

Read on: Valentine's Day gifts for the guy in your life

Keys can also be given on Valentine's Day in Italy -- symbolizing an invitation to unlock the giver's heart.

Verona, where Shakespeare set Romeo and Juliet, hosts a four-day romantic festival to celebrate Valentine's Day. Lovers blanket walls and fences around Juliet's balcony with small red or pink padlocks.



A wall covered in padlocks at the house of Juliet during the Verona in Love festival on Feb. 14, 2017. 


Awakening/Getty Images



South Africa
In South Africa, it's customary for women in February to pin the names of their crush on the sleeve of their shirt. The tradition is believed to be a modern adaptation of the ancient Roman rite of Lupercalia, which involved naked men chasing women in the street.




More than two dozen couples attend a mass wedding ceremony on Valentine's Day 2010 on Robben Island, near Cape Town, South Africa.


Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images


On Robben Island, north of Cape Town, dozens of couples tie the knot during a mass Valentine's Day wedding ceremony held every year.




















Japan
In Japan, women present men with chocolates and flowers on Feb. 14. Husbands, boyfriends or prospective partners get high-end honmei choco ("true feeling" chocolates, while acquaintances and coworkers receive simpler giri choco ("****** chocolates".




A woman buys sublime ruby Kit Kats as a Giri choco at a chocolate shop in Tokyo. 


BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP via Getty Images


A month later, on March 14 -- or White Day -- men who received honmei choco are expected to return the favor with a present worth at least two or three times what their lady spent on chocolate. 


Romania
In Romania, Feb. 25 is known as Dragobete, after the Romanian god of love: Women collect snow and melt it and wash their face with the water to have beautiful skin all year.

Young men and women meet outside church in their best clothes and go to the forest to collect flowers or herbs for incantations.



A pedestrian dances with a Romanian woman during the celebration of Dragobete in Bucharest. 


DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP via Getty Images


Before lunch, the boys are supposed to chase the girls and, if a suitor catches a maiden, steal a kiss.  

One Dragobete superstition holds that stepping over a partner's foot leads to holding the dominant role in the relationship.


Denmark

In Denmark, lovers and friends alike exchange white flowers called snowdrops.

Men also write "gaekkebrev" -- elaborate paper-cut notes with a humorous message signed only with a series of anonymous dots. If his lady love figures out who sent her a "joking card," she earns an Easter egg later that spring.


Wales



A pair of wooden love spoons from Wales.


Nacho Mena


Lovers in Wales have exchanged handcrafted wooden spoons on Jan. 25 for more than 400 years: On St Dwynwen's Day -- named for the Welsh patron saint of lovers -- young men present "lovespoons" they carved themselves to the young ladies they are courting.

"If accepted, they were then regarded as tokens of engagement, or betrothal," woodcarver Kerry Thomas told CBS News.





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