Valentine's Day arrives every February 14 — the world's holiday of love, from handwritten cards to candlelit dinners. The countdown below runs to the next one, live.
The day is named for a third-century Roman martyr — by legend, a priest who performed forbidden weddings for soldiers. The romantic association came a thousand years later, when Chaucer and the poets of courtly love linked mid-February to pairing birds and lovers' notes.
Roughly 145 million Valentine's cards are exchanged in the US alone each year — and that's not counting classroom valentines. Japan flips the tradition: women give chocolate on February 14, and men reciprocate on White Day, March 14.