Valentine's Day friend"), which is a game similar to the Christmas tradition of Secret Santa. In Brazil, the "Dia dos Namorados" (lit. "Lovers' Day", or "Boyfriends'/Girlfriends' Day") is celebrated on June 12, probably because that is the day before Saint Anthony's day, known there as the "marriage saint", when traditionally many single women perform popular rituals, called "simpatias", in order to find a good husband or boyfriend. Couples exchange gifts, chocolates, cards, and flower bouquets. The February 14 Valentine's Day is not celebrated at all because it usually falls too little before or too little after the Brazilian Carnival — that can
Mother's Day International Women's Day are two separate holidays, with International Women's Day being held on its original date of 8 March. Traditionally Russia had celebrated International Women's Day and Mother's Day on 8 March, an inheritance from the Soviet Union, and a public holiday. Women's Day was first celebrated on the last Sunday in February in 1913 in Russia. In 1917, demonstrations marking International Women's Day in Saint Petersburg on the last Sunday in February (which fell on 8 March on the Gregorian calendar) initiated the February Revolution. Following the October Revolution later that year, the Bolshevik Alexandra Kollontai persuaded Vladimir