Lovers around the world found ways and means to express their feelings on Valentine's Day - from a heartfelt, verbal expression or a simple SMS message to a romantic dinner or an amorous holiday abroad.

In the United States alone, consumers were expected to spend $17 billion on cards, flowers, chocolates and expensive trinkets. And nearly half of Americans were expected to celebrate the day with a special night out. Globarati.com listed 10 hotels ideal for an intimate hideaway. These include Las Ventanas al Paraiso in Los Cabos, Mexico, Mykonos Grand in Mykonos, Greece, Nam Hai in Hoi An, Vietnam and Four Seasons Hotel Hampshire in Hampshire, England.

The Maltese like to pamper themselves on the day with a dinner for two, which can turn out to be quite an expensive fare, while most hotels offer special accommodation rates for couples. Others opt for a less expensive wine bar or the cinema which also offers advantageous rates for couples.

But St Valentine's Day is not only a day for lovers; some adventurous singles try out their luck to find love on the day while others use the day to raise awareness on sensitive issues.

Australians sought love speed-dating in deckchairs on Bondi Beach, while Filipinos sang syrupy ballards. Contrary to its racy reputation, Thailand told police and "student inspectors" to stake out motels, malls and parks to ensure youngsters behaved themselves on the "Day of Love", when polls say many teenagers have sex for the first time.

In China, where homosexuality was listed as a mental illness until 2001, 20 gay and lesbian activists in Beijing marked the day by handing out roses to promote awareness and same-sex marriages.

Valentine's Day in the Philippines was celebrated traditionally, with a riot of red and pink roses, heart-shaped cards and syrupy love ballads.

But Manila's Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales warned against "exclusive moments" between unmarried couples.

A day before Valentine's Day, more than 500 Japanese women sailed across the Ashino-ko lake at the foot of Mount Fuji, then trekked through a snow-covered forest to pray for love at the small red Kuzuryu shrine, a famous divine match-making site.

In the Japanese version of Valentine's Day, women buy chocolates for their lovers and even colleagues, while men return the favour a month later, on White Day.

South Korea put a typically modern spin on the traditional festival, with a mobile phone operator promoting a "Love Detector" service that is supposed to analyse voice patterns to see if a lover is speaking honestly and with affection.

Unfortunately for lovers in Saudi Arabia, religious police have banned red roses, forcing couples in the conservative Muslim nation to think of new ways to show their love.

And on a day when romance is supposed to be in the air, a US radio station has been overwhelmed by people wanting to take advantage of its Valentine's Day offer of a free divorce.

In Bulgaria, lovers can officially ignore Valentine's Day because the day is given over to the celebration of wine and St Trifon The Pruner, although Valentine's Day popularity is quickly growing among the young.

Although February 14 is popularly dedicated to St Valentine's, the confusion over its origins led the Catholic Church, in 1969, to drop St Valentine's Day from the Roman calendar of official, worldwide Catholic feasts. Instead, the feast of St Cyril and St Methodius is celebrated on February 14.

Valentine's Day was first linked to romance by Chaucer in a 1381 poem, according to some references. The exchange of cards was popularised in England not long after.

Factbox

Possible origins of Valentine's Day

• Although there were several Christian martyrs named Valentine, the day probably took its name from a priest who was martyred about AD 270 by the Roman emperor Claudius II Gothicus. According to legend, the priest signed a letter to his jailer's daughter, with whom he had fallen in love, "from your Valentine".

• The day may also have originated in the ancient Roman celebration of the Feast of Lupercalia in honour of Juno, the queen of the Roman gods and goddesses, on February 14. Juno was also the goddess of women and marriage so honouring her was thought to be a fertility rite.

• At the feast held the next day, the women would write love-letters and stick them in a large urn. The men would pick a letter from the urn and, for the next year, pursue the woman who wrote the chosen letter. This custom lasted centuries.

The first cards

• The custom of exchanging cards and other tokens of love on February 14 began to develop in England and France in the 14th and 15th centuries and became especially popular in the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries.

• In England in 1477 Margery Brews sent a letter to her fiancé, John Paston of Norfolk addressing him as "my right wele-belovyd Voluntyn".

• In the US the first commercially-produced cards were manufactured by Robert H. Elton of New York in 1834.

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