Neon Valentine Signs

When Is Valentine’s Day 2022?

Valentine’s Day is traditionally celebrated on the 14th of February, which in 2022 falls on a Monday. While the purists may prefer to have their celebration on the actual day, many couples will probably take advantage of the weekend and celebrate early.

Whichever day you choose to commemorate Valentine’s Day, it would be wise to plan ahead. Valentine’s Day has increased in popularity in recent years as many enjoy having something fun to do in the grey days of winter. This means that if you are thinking of doing something traditional, there will probably be many people with the same idea.

Neon Heart Lights

A good choice for a Valentine’s Day gift could be a pink neon heart light. Simple, elegant, and classy, it would be an excellent gift for the early stages of a relationship. Of course, it can be any colour, but pink is considered romantic. Red roses were dedicated to Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and white was associated with purity and innocence. Combining the two colours and concepts resulted in pink being considered the colour of romance.

However, one of the great things about light-up LED love signs is that you are not limited to just one colour. Modern neon signs come in all colours and shapes. You could choose two interlinked hearts, an angel heart with a halo or even a devil heart with horns if that’s more your thing. Another fun option is a neon wall light in the shape of a heart with words inside it such as ‘Be Mine‘.

I Love You Neon LED Sign

Using words for a neon wall light can be very effective. Keeping things simple and just saying ‘I Love You’ is a good idea, especially for a long-term relationship. ‘Be My Valentine’ would also be a cool neon sign to give as a gift. Another popular choice is ‘Happily Ever After‘, the ultimate romantic conclusion. Having a reminder of your love on the wall can be lovely if you have been together for a while, making a LED love sign a thoughtful Valentine’s Day gift.

Choose a Custom Neon Sign for Something Unique

You may want to consider giving something really personal and meaningful for a Valentine’s Day gift. A good way to achieve this is by making your own neon sign. Modern LED lights can be formed into many different shapes. You can design your custom LED sign then use our Bespoke Neon Sign Builder to see how it will look. For example, you could opt to have your initials or names in neon lights, maybe enclosed in a heart. Or if you have a quote or song lyric that means a lot to both of you could have that made it into a personalised light-up sign.

While Valentine’s Day has become heavily commercialised in recent years, taking an opportunity to let someone you love that you have been thinking of them is still a great idea. A light-up love sign can be a fun, meaningful, and unique gift for Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s Day, Everything You Need to Know

You may be thinking that February is a strange month to have a romantic holiday. It depends where you live in the world, but February is a cold, damp time of year for many. Snuggling up somewhere warm in pyjamas and blankets seems like a more obvious activity in February than getting romantic. Some suggest that February 14th became Valentine’s Day because centuries ago, it was a day dedicated to the Roman Queen of the gods Juno, patroness of women and marriage. Another popular suggestion is that originally birds started mating, and people spotted the first signs of spring in mid-February, leading to thoughts of romance. Over the centuries, our calendars have been adjusted, and mid-February no longer aligns with early spring, but the date stuck.

What Is the Origin of Valentine’s Day?

No one really knows how Valentine’s Day began. Some theorise that, like many holidays, a pagan festival was Christianised. In this case, a fertility festival called Lupercalia was held on the Ides of February in Roman times. The Romans sacrificed a goat and a dog, then ducked the hides in the blood. The blood-spattered hides were then used to hit women and fields to increase their fertility. A matchmaking lottery was also allegedly held, pairing off women with men. Pope Gelasius seems to have banned the festival, and maybe it was renamed St Valentine’s Day. Thankfully, modern Valentine’s Day traditions are less extreme and more fun! Giving your Valentine a fun LED neon sign will probably get a better reception than copying the Romans.

Several different men became St Valentine, over 30 by some accounts. Emperor Claudius supposedly executed at least two. One legend claims that Valentine married lovers in secret after the Emperor banned young men from marrying because he thought single men made better soldiers. His championing of love led to him being connected with the celebration of romance.

Another story has a Valentine imprisoned and sentenced to death for rescuing Christians from the Roman prisons. Before he died, he sent a letter to his jailer’s daughter, who had befriended him and signed it ‘from your Valentine’, a phrase frequently used on cards today.

What Is the History of Valentine’s Day?

The first actual mention of Valentine’s Day is by the English medieval writer Geoffrey Chaucer in his poem ‘Parliament of Fowls’, written in 1382 to honour King Richard II’s engagement. However, we don’t really know if he was referring to the February date as there were several feast days to St Valentine at that time. Records show that King Richard II’s engagement occurred in May, making it doubtful that Chaucer was referring to February 14th. A couple of other poets around the same time period also mention celebrating a St Valentine feast day.

By the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the concept of courtly love and romance had become popular, especially in Europe. In France, the Normans celebrated Galatin’s Day, which meant the “lover of women”, and that festival could have become Valentine’s Day. Several surviving documents mention Valentine in connection with romance. A charter from France dated to the 1400s describes the royal court having a feast, romantic songs and poetry, and ladies passing verdict on lover’s dispute on February 14th. In a poem written by the Duke of Orleans to his wife in 1415 while imprisoned in the Tower of London, he calls her ‘my sweet Valentine’.

About the same time over in England, Margery Brewes wrote a letter to her fiancé John Paston calling him “my right well-beloved Valentine”. Valentine’s Day seems to be well established by Tudor times, with William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, and John Donne all referring to the celebration. By the 17th Century, Valentine’s Day was widely celebrated in England, and the English took the festival with them as they explored and colonised other lands.

Valentine’s Day was so popular at the beginning of the 19th Century that factories made cards. Companies soon saw the opportunity to make money from the holiday. Cadbury started making a decorated box of chocolates in a heart shape for Valentine’s Day. By 1913 Hallmark had got in on the act and were promoting the holiday and mass-producing Valentine cards. Nowadays, Valentine’s Day is widely known and many countries mark the holiday by giving gifts and cards.

Where Does the Love Heart Sign Come From?

When looking at a neon heart light, you may wonder just where the love heart symbol came from. You don’t need to be a biologist to know that a real heart looks nothing like the heart symbol. The heart has long been associated with the centre of emotions, especially love. It’s unclear where the symbol we know came from since it has been around for centuries.

One theory claims a resemblance between the love heart symbol and the seed pod of a giant fennel that grew in North Africa. Known as silphium, this fennel was used by the ancient Greeks and Romans as birth control and cough syrup. It seems an unlikely origin, though.

Others think that artists and scientists in the Middle Ages were trying to interpret the descriptions of the heart made by scholars such as Galen and Aristotle. Their texts described the heart as having three chambers and a dip in the middle. Again, it seems like an unlikely connection.

Like many things, there’s no way to really know where the love heart symbol originally came from. However, it is universally recognised as a symbol of love and romance and is inextricably linked to Valentine’s Day. A love heart symbol is always a good starting point for a Valentine’s Day gift.