Valentine's Day 2012
Today is Valentine's Day, a day set aside for expressions of love and affection. The traditional western holiday has spread to many countries around the globe, despite some efforts by religious and cultural groups to fight its adoption. Valentine's Day spending in the U.S. this year is expected to reach nearly $15 billion -- $2 billion of it on flowers alone. Ninety percent of the flowers Americans will give to their sweethearts are imported, and nearly all of those imports originate in Colombia and Ecuador. Included in today's posting is an 18-photo series depicting the voyage of the roses from South American farm to florists worldwide.
A couple kisses during a flashmob organized by a local television station on the eve of Valentine's Day in the Russian city of Stavropol, on February 13, 2012. (Reuters/Eduard Korniyenko)
(1 of 18) An aerial view of the Rio Roses farm where workers are preparing roses for export before the upcoming Valentine's Day in Cayambe, Ecuador, on February 8, 2012. Ninety percent of the flowers Americans will give to their sweethearts are imported, and nearly all of those imports originate in Colombia and Ecuador. (Reuters/Guillermo Granja)
(4 of 18) Workers select roses to be packed ahead of Valentine's Day at a flower farm of "The Elite flowers" company in Facatativa, near Bogota, Colombia, on February 1, 2012. In giant greenhouses outside Bogota, the flowers are clipped and shipped worldwide, accounting for 65 percent of the roses imported in the United States and many of the bouquets delivered in Europe.(Guillermo Legaria/AFP/Getty Images)
(11 of 18) A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialist uses a magnifying glass to look at a snail that he found and placed in a bottle to identify later, while inspecting flowers for any foreign pests or diseases at the UPS facility at Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida, on February 10, 2012. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
(13 of 18) A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialist holds a bottle containing a tiny snail that he found and placed in the bottle to identify later while inspecting flowers for foreign pests or diseases at the UPS facility at Miami International Airport February 10, 2012. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
A Muslim couple takes pictures at the "Million Lights, Million Hearts" display ahead of Valentine's Day celebrations at Shah Alam commercial hub i-City, outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on February 13, 2012. Islamic authorities in Muslim-majority Malaysia have been conducting raids on Valentine's Day after an edict was issued in 2005 banning Muslims from celebrating the occasion, considered a Western celebration that could erode Muslim's faith. (Reuters/Samsul Said)
A couple place a lock on a bridge railing of the so-called "Bridge of Love" to celebrate St. Valentine's Day in Kiev, Ukraine, on February 14, 2012. Words on the lock reads "Love forever". Hundreds of locks that lovers leave as the symbols of their love decorate the bridge, covered with the names of the couples. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
A patissier serves chocolate syrup to visitors at a "chocolate spa" at the Hakone Yunessun spa resort facilities in Hakone town, Kanagawa prefecture, Japan, on February 12, 2012. The spa is the venue for the month-long event amid the celebrations for St. Valentine's Day.(Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP/Getty Images)
Pakistani women belonging to religious party Jamiat-e-Ulama Pakistan shout slogans as they set fire to a Valentine's card during a protest against Valentine's day in Karachi, on February 14, 2012. Valentine's Day is increasingly celebrated in Pakistan, a Muslim country where many conservatives disapprove of the occasion as a Western import. (Rizwan Tabassum/AFP/Getty Images)
In a celebration of Valentine's Day, couples try to set the record for the largest synchronized kiss in Virginia on the Loudoun Street Pedestrian Mall in Winchester, Virginia, on February 11, 2012. The record of 97 couples was set last year at the first Big Kiss.(AP Photo/The Winchester Star, Jeff Taylor)
An employee applies gold leaf to a client's face at the Viet My beauty salon in Hanoi, Vietnam, on February 13, 2012. Despite tough economic conditions, including soaring inflation, people in Vietnam seem to be spending heavily as usual on special occasions like Valentine's Day. Viet My is one of a small number of salons in Vietnam that provides 24k gold leaf face mask therapy, said to help make skin whiter. A single facial costs 1.8 million Vietnam dong ($86.41). (Reuters/Kham)
Lela Mc Arthur, left, and Stephanie Figarelle, both from Anchorage, Alaska, pose for photos on the observation deck after their Valentine's Day wedding ceremony at the Empire State Building, in New York City, on February 14, 2012. The two women, who met at the University of Alaska, became the first same-sex couple to be married at the Empire State Building. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
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