Showing posts with label Valentines Day. Show all posts
Won't you be our valentine?
Oh, you said yes? Fantastic!
Rather than boring flowers or chocolates, though, how about a Top 10 bouquet of the best heart-swooning, romance-inducing world records in existence? Because you deserve nothing but the best.
Largest Underwater Wedding
The largest underwater wedding (above) was achieved by 303 divers who attended the marriage ceremony between Ewa Staronska and Pawel Burkowski (both Poland) during an event organized by Orka Group Ltd (Poland) at the Koparki Diving Base, Jaworzno, Poland, on August 27, 2011.
Longest Marriage
These land-lovers were married on terra firma, but Herbert Fisher (USA, b. 10 June 1905) and Zelmyra Fisher (USA, b. 10 December 1907) had their nuptials May 13, 1924 in North Carolina, USA. They had been married 86 years, 9 months, and 16 days as of February 27, 2011. Herbert Fisher sadly died that Sunday. The couple had 5 children.
Largest Box Of Chocolate
The largest box of chocolates is a Thorntons Moments box weighing 3,725 lbs (1,689 kg). It was produced by Thorntons and Russell Beck Studios, and weighed in Bethnal Green, London, UK, on April 2, 2008. The box was 16 ft 6 in long, 11 ft 2 in wide and 3 ft 3 1/2 in deep.
First Known Heart Shaped Box Of Chocolate
Richard Cadbury (UK), the eldest son of John Cadbury, founder of the world famous company, created the first known heart-shaped box of chocolates for Valentine’s Day 1868. He was a pioneer in chocolate box design and often used his own paintings to make the lids of the boxes more appealing.
Oldest Love Poem
The oldest surviving love poem is written on a clay tablet from the times of the Sumerians, inventors of writing around 3500 BD, and was given a very un-romantic name by archaeologists: 'Istanbul #2461'. Not quite Shakespeare. The author is unknown but is believed to have been recited by a bride of Sumerian king Shu-Sin, who ruled between 2037 and 2029 BC. The following is the start of the poem:
Bridegroom, dear to my heart,
Goodly is your beauty, honeysweet,
Lion, dear to my heart,
Goodly is your beauty, honeysweet.
#swoon
Largest Collection Of Teddy Bears
At last count, Jackie Miley (USA) of Hill City, South Dakota, owned 8,026 different teddy bears, which she began collecting in 2002. When Jackie started the collection in 2002, she had no idea things would turn out as they have. When the collection grew, she thought she would like to collect as many teddy bears as Hill City’s population (780) for a goal. Since then, her collection has grown to such an extent that she now has them in a little house of their own called Teddy Bear Town. It's located across the street from her apartment.
Largest Mural Of Kisses
The largest mural of kisses consisted of 13,316 kisses and was achieved by NIVEA Brasil, at Pinheiros Station, São Paulo, Brazil, on June 12, 2012. The kisses were made on sticky notes that were then displayed a board measuring 18 m² - the mural formed a big kiss.
Largest Chocolate Truffle
The largest chocolate truffle weighted 1,768 lb 11 oz (802 kg) and was achieved by Mirco Della Vecchia, Andrea Andrighetti, Rimini Fiera, Fabbri 1905, Icam and Martellato (all Italy) at the Sigep Fair in Rimini, Italy, on January 21, 2012.
Most Hugs Given In 24 Hours By An Individual
The most hugs given in 24 hours is 8,709 and was achieved by Jonathan Sexton (USA) at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, on June 11, 2010. The attempt raised money for United Way's "Restore the Dream" fund, which aided individuals affected by flooding in Nashville.
Longest Kiss
And it wouldn't be Valentine's Day without a big ol' smooch. The longest kiss lasted 58 hours, 35 minutes and 58 seconds, achieved by Ekkachai Tiranarat and Laksana Tiranarat (both Thailand) at an event organized by Ripley's Believe It or Not! Pattaya, in Pattaya, Thailand, on February 12-14, 2013. Nine couples entered the annual competition, including a married couple in their 70s. However, it was previous record holders Ekkachai Tiranarat and Laksana Tiranarat who came out on top, scooping a cash prize and two diamond rings as well as another Guinness World Records title.
Plan on breaking a romantic record yourself this Valentine's Day? Let us know in the comments!
1) Definitely stare deep in their eyes
Oliver Burkeman’s Help! How to be slightly happier and get a bit more done pointed me to evidence that staring into each other’s eyes really does increase attraction:
2) Still early in the relationship? Talk about travel, not movies.In two studies, subjects induced to exchange mutual unbroken gaze for 2 min with a stranger of the opposite sex reported increased feelings of passionate love for each other.
When talking about movies, less than 9 percent of the pairs wanted to meet up again, compared to 18 percent when participants spoke about the top topic—travel.Via Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things
3) Want to look more attractive?
How long does it take to determine if someone is hot? Thirteen milliseconds. Really: thirteen milliseconds.
To find out exactly how quickly we can tell if a person is hot or not, neuroscientists Ingrid Olson and Christy Marshuetz devised a sneaky experiment. They exposed men and women to a series of pre-rated faces, some gorgeous and other homely, and asked them to rate their appearance. The twist was that the faces flickered on the screen for only thirteen milliseconds — a flash so fast that the exasperated viewers swore they didn’t see anything. Yet when forced to rate the faces they thought they didn’t see, the judges were uncannily accurate.
So you don’t have a lot of time but there are some things you can do:
- Beauty sleep? Yeah, it’s real. Get some.
4) Forget dinner. Go somewhere exciting for Valentine’s Day.
The research points again and again to how important thrills are:
- What reignited passion in long term marriages? Doing exciting things together.
- Think a pleasant evening is all it takes? Researchers did a 10 week study comparing couples that engaged in “pleasant” activities vs “exciting” activities. Pleasant lost.
- Why would doing anything exciting have such a big effect on a relationship? Because we’re lousy about realizing where our feelings are coming from. Excitement from any source will be associated with the person you’re with, even if they’re not the cause of it.
The fun moments are more powerful than the bad moments: “…how you celebrate is more predictive of strong relations than how you fight.”
Shelly Gable, professor of psychology at the University of California at Santa Barbara, has demonstrated that how you celebrate is more predictive of strong relations than how you fight.
5) Go ahead and babytalk
Research shows it’s a good thing:
Individuals who had babytalked to friends or romantic partners tended to be more secure and less avoidant with regard to attachments in general. Within a particular romantic relationship, indicators of intimacy and attachment accounted for about 22% of the variance in babytalk frequency. Partner’s babytalking was the strongest predictor, accounting for about 42% of the variance. Communication intentions accompanying babytalk paralleled the hallmarks of attachment, especially affection and play. These and other results suggest that babytalk functions in the process of intimate personal connection.
6) Best Valentine’s Day gift?
Studies show people like your gifts more when you stop being so creative and just get them what they want.
Dan Ariely, author of the excellent Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, adds to that saying:
In summary, I think that the best gifts circumvent guilt in two key ways: by eliminating the guilt that accompanies extravagant purchases, and by reducing the guilt that comes from coupling payment with consumption. The best advice on gift-giving, therefore, is to get something that someone really wants but would feel guilty buying otherwise.
(Did you receive a lousy gift for Valentine’s Day? Here are pro tips on how to act like you’re not horribly disappointed.)
7) Ask the right questions
Arthur Aron studies what makes people connect quickly and deeply and has found it can be a matter of just asking the right questions.
Via Sam Gosling’s book, Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You:
Arthur Aron, a psychologist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is interested in how people form romantic relationships, and he’s come up with an ingenious way of taking men and women who have never met before and making them feel close to one another. Given that he has just an hour or so to create the intimacy levels that typically take weeks, months, or years to form, he accelerated the getting-to-know-you process through a set of thirty-six questions crafted to take the participants rapidly from level one in McAdams’s system to level two.
But how effective can this be really? In under an hour it can create a connection stronger than a lifelong relationship.
What he found was striking. The intensity of the dialogue partners’ bond at the end of the forty-five-minute vulnerability interaction was rated as closer than the closest relationship in the lives of 30 percent of similar students. In other words, the instant connections were more powerful than many long-term, even lifelong relationships.
(You can read some of Aron’s questions used here.)
Is all this making you a little crazy?
That’s okay. Love could be classified as a mental illness:
In the book Love Sick: Love as a Mental Illness, Frank Tallis writes that if we take the symptoms of falling in love and “check them against accepted diagnostic criteria for mental illness, we find that most ‘lovers’ qualify for diagnoses of obsessional illness, depression or manic depression.” Other symptoms include insomnia, hyperactivity, and loss of appetite. Ah, ain’t love grand?
The Bible covers two types of love: agape and phileo. Agape love is represented by God's love for us. It is a non-partial, sacrificial love best demonstrated by the gift in John 3:16. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life." This kind of love is unconditional. The "Love Chapter" in 1 Corinthians deals more explicitly with this. "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails" (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a). This passage is often quoted at weddings and other celebrations of love.
Agape is a connection through the spirit. A true manifestation of this requires a relationship with Christ. For without Him, agape love isn't exhibited in its truest form. We, as humans, can't reach this level alone. We need our Heavenly Father's Spirit in us, working through us. "The Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23). Only through that Spirit can we reach this goal.
The other kind of love, phileo, is considered "brotherly love." It is usually based upon how others treat us and our feelings in any given situation. It involves direct interaction and sometimes comes with a price tag of expectation, wanting something back in return. It's a demonstrative form of love offered through the soul. But, it's also a command from God. "Let us love one another, because love comes from God" (1 John 4:7).
Love is the attribute of God that means the most to us. If God didn't love us, whom He created, He would have traded us in for a better model long ago. Despite our many failures, God keeps working with us (Romans 5:8). Time and time again, despite His patience being tested, He demonstrates that love for His people. He only banned Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. He didn't take their lives. He spared the world because He found one man of upright faith in Noah. He rescued Lot from Sodom before destroying that city. He made Abraham the father of many nations and blessed him with his long-awaited son, despite Abraham's impatience when he fathered a son through his wife's servant.
In the same way God shows His love for us, He expects us to love Him totally and to show love toward each other. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself" (Luke 10:27). Jesus spoke these words when the Pharisees questioned Him about the greatest commandment of God. Although they tried to trick Him, Jesus didn't change the law; He fulfilled it. His sayings about love were not new. The emphasis was merely changed.
The relationships in our lives will either be governed by agape or phileo love. When thinking in terms of romance, we allow the manifestation of that agape love to pour out from our hearts. As a result, we are eager to do everything we can to please the other person and make that person happy. In a love relationship between a man and a woman, the romance is the physical evidence of the love that exists. When that relationship progresses to marriage, the love built between the man and woman only grows deeper as the bond is made stronger through the intimate union of body and soul. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh" (Genesis 2:24). Biblical love elevates the husband's affections for his wife to the point of loving his wife "as his own body." It also instructs wives to submit to their husbands as the head of the household (Eph. 5:25-29). But submission doesn't mean subservience. On the contrary, when true agape love is manifested in the marriage, the two will act as one, and both will love the other as they love themselves. The tenderness and romance will come out of that love.
By far, the best book in the Bible on this romantic and agape type of love is the Song of Solomon. An oft-quoted and many times favorite of romantics, this book demonstrates the parallel between the agape love Christ has for His church and the deep, abiding love a husband has for his bride. The lover and beloved exchange dialogue with each other, and the beloved speaks with her friends. Every passage attests to the deep and abiding love between the lover and beloved. The two are so consumed with that love that it fills them and gives them strength to face each new day. They find comfort and solace in each other's arms and are incomplete without each other. Being together excites them, and when they're apart, they anticipate their reunion.
But, above everything else that is demonstrated in God's Word, it's important to keep in mind that love/romance is an action. It's not passive, and it's not a feeling. It's a verb. It requires you to do something in order to bring it to pass. It also requires that you put the other person's wants and desires above your own. Whenever you need a reminder, go back and read 1 Corinthians 13. And remember, you don't have to do it alone. God's Spirit will work through you. All you have to do is ask.
