Usually we view Valentine’s Day as an exclusively American holiday, but many other countries celebrate Valentine’s Day with their own traditions or have their own independent day of love.

In Malaysia they celebrate their day of love on the seventh day of the seventh month on their lunar calendar. On this day women write their phone numbers on orange peels and throw the skin in the nearest river in hopes that a handsome gentleman finds it and gives them a call.

The Brazilian equivalent to Valentine’s Day is called Dia Dos Namorados.  It is a Dia Dos Namorados tradition for women to write their names on a piece of paper and have men pick it from a pile then the randomly paired partners spend the day together and exchange gifts.

In France single men and women participate in a Valentine’s Day tradition called Une Loterie De Amour in which men gather in a house on one side of a street while women gather in the house facing it on the opposite side of the street and shout at each other until they claim a partner. Once paired, a man could abandon the woman he was paired with later that day if their time together is unsatisfactory. If the woman is abandoned she is expected to make a bonfire and burn any picture or sentimental object she may have accumulated during the short-lived relationship.

In Japan women are given the responsibility of giving men chocolates as gifts. There are multiple types of chocolates; low-quality chocolate is given to unlikable men, men that women feel neutral about get chocolates of average quality. Men that women admire get expensive high-quality chocolates that occasionally have messages printed on them. This tradition was brought into existence by chocolate companies to raise brand awareness and increase profit.

In South Korea the 14th day of each month a slightly different way to celebrate love.  For example there is Wine Day, Hug Day, White Day (where men receive chocolate from women), Rose Day—there is even a day where single people can gather and wallow in each other’s loneliness and eat black bean noodles, and this day is called Black Day.