Valentine’s Day Google Doodle Lets You Make Sweets For Your Sweet

Update

It appears the U.S. Valentine's Day Google Doodle is different from the Doodle that appeared on the New Zealand Google home page. The U.S. Valentine's Doodle is made of candy hearts, which can be clicked on to hear a "true story of love," with each heart displaying sketches of the story being told.

Find the other Doodle on Feb. 14 at Google.co.uk.

Original story

Google is ensuring that everyone gets a special treat this Valentine’s Day. The Google Doodle displayed on the search engine’s main page is an interactive one, which lets users create chocolate bon-bons and add them to a Valentine’s Day chocolate box with Google printed on front.

Choose from dark, milk, or white chocolate; fillings like fruit, gummy bears, caramel, or even ants; and toppings like sprinkles and sugar; and add up to three confections to your box. Once all three chocolates are made, Google will generate a URL, which you can share via social media (perhaps to a special someone), to review the ingredients of your treats.

Due to the time zones, several locations got the Google Doodle as early as 24 hours ahead of North America. Accessing such country-specific URLs as New Zealand’s google.co.nz allows outside users to view the Doodle on Feb. 13. Once it is Feb. 14, users should be able to access the Doodle from the Google URL specific to their country. Users should access the URL in Google Chrome for the best interactive experience.

Valentine’s Day: Before Google

Valentine’s Day may be derived from at least three early Christian saints named Valentinus, but the holiday is most commonly connected with Saint Valentine of Rome. While today, we are used to Valentine’s Day being about Cupid, cards and candy, in the 3rd century it was a time when the then priest Valentine would marry young people in secret. During the war-torn reign of Emperor Claudius II, the ruler outlawed marriage on the belief that unmarried soldiers fought better than married soldiers. Valentine was eventually imprisoned and beheaded for his illegal officiating of marriages – and was declared a martyr by the church for his sacrifice.

Feb. 14 was declared St. Valentine’s Day toward the end of the 5th century by Pope Gelasius I; and Valentine’s Day would get its romantic connotation from authors like Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare centuries later.

What does Valentine's Day mean to you? Let us know in the comments below.

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