Census Bureau Daily Feature for Saturday, February 14: Valentine’s Day
WASHINGTON-(Business Wire)-February 14, 2009 - Profile America — Saturday, February 14th. Today may not be an official holiday, but Valentine’s Day is one of the most popular on the year’s calendar. Its origins are a mix of legends involving two Christian martyrs, a Roman fertility rite, and the old notion that this is the time of year when the birds choose their mates. What is sure is that Esther Howland of Massachusetts began selling the first mass-produced valentines in the 1840s. Now, Valentine’s Day is one of the biggest occasions in the country’s greeting card shops, candy stores and jewelers. Perhaps the busiest of all are the nation’s more than 48,000 florists, who sell $7.5 billion of flowers each year. You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at www.census.gov.
| Sources: | U.S. Census Bureau, Facts for Features, CB08-FF.02 | |
| 2002 Economic Census, NAICS 453110 | ||
| http://www.census.gov/econ/census02/data/industry/E453110.HTM |
Profile America is produced by the Public Information Office of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on a monthly CD or on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look under the “Newsroom” button).
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