During the Middle Ages, there was a belief that the first unmarried person of the opposite sex you met on the morning of St. Valentine's Day would become your spouse.
In that same period, women also ate strange foods on Valentine's Day, to dream of their future spouse.
Gifts were never a part of the Valentine's Day tradition until the Duke of Orleans sent the first Valentine's Day gift to his wife Bonne d’Armagnac, in the form of a card with a poem, after he was captured in 1415.
Unfortunately, it was not meant to be a happy ending - she died before he was released.
It is the first record of a card being sent to a lover, however card companies such as Hallmark weren't the ones truly responsible for pushing the Valentine's Day card and gift buying tradition.
Richard Cadbury, co-founder of Cadbury Chocolates, is to blame, being behind the first big company to promote Valentine's Day when he unveiled the first Valentine's Day box of chocolates in 1868.
Hallmark didn't catch on until 1913, when it unveiled its first Valentines Day card. By then, there had been other companies that had been successfully selling Valentine's card for years.
Valentine's Day is now a very profitable period of the year, as it relies on people showing their partners how much they love them by how deep they're digging into their wallets.
And according to market analyst company IbisWorld, people will spend even more this Valentines Day.
IbisWorld predicts spending will rise by 2.7 per cent to $867.3 million on February 14, compared to the 0.5 per cent rise in spending between 2008 and 2009.
With Valentine's Day falling on a weekend this year, hotels and restaurants are expected to benefit with an expected 2.6 per cent rise on eating out and a 3.7 per cent increase on weekend getaways.
IbisWorld's general manager, Robert Bryant, said packaged deals that include accommodation, dinner, flights would benefit as well.
Even though lovers will be rejoicing (or for those with broken hearts, crying) on the 14th, retailers will be celebrating on the 13th as they expect last minute shoppers - men, mostly - pulling out their credit cards in an effort to find that perfect gift.
"Spending on confectionery and flowers will only rise marginally thanks to people purchasing bigger blooms and larger boxes of chocolates. We may also see growth in spending on premium brands as couples opt for Lindt or Koko Black over Cadburys, and red roses over gerberas," Brant said.
Being a premium brand, Max Brenner's national marketing manager, Jung Hyun Shin, said Valentine's Day was a very exciting period for the company. Shin said sales went up by up to 55 per cent on Valentines day.
However, she noted that in such a competitive industry, with hundreds of Valentine's Day brands, Max Brenner had to be more creative to attract more consumers. Products such as their 'loves me, loves me not' chocolate box which recreates the act of pulling flower petals in an unscientific bid to see if your crush likes you, or not, are very popular.
To further up the ante, Max Brenner has created gift ideas such as the 'Body Massage Candle', a Vanilla and Hazelnut scented candle that melts into massage oil.
"We try to make people comfortable on Valentine's Day by helping set up a nice romantic mood. It is not unusual for some of our patrons to do a Valentines Day proposal in our stores," Shin said.
And as for the untraditional gifts, there are plenty being sold over the counter and on the internet.
Products such as the 'Tasty Temptation Massage Candle', a candle that once melted, turns into cherry flavoured massage oil that is edible, are attracting more consumers looking for that something new.
Even though the idea of Valentine's Day may be cute, on a personal level I will avoid the day and buying gifts because I don't understand what the fuss is all about - shouldn't we be treating each other nicely 365 days a year anyways?