Yesterday was Valentine’s Day, and The Macau Post Daily visited several local florists and bakeries to experience the festive atmosphere.
St. Valentine’s Day takes place on February 14 of the Gregorian calendar each year. It has its origins in either Christianity or Roman mythology and is now celebrated almost everywhere around the world.
Flowers seem to be a common gift on Valentine’s Day to show one’s love for their significant other. The owner of a florist shop in Travessa do Bispo said that this year her customers have been happy to spend more money, “Last year, a customer may have spent about 500 patacas on flowers, this year it has increased to nearly 1,000 patacas”.
However, the shopkeeper said, although her customers’ budgets have increased, in fact, the cost of flowers has also increased a lot.
She showed her orders pinned all over the wall and said, “These are all the orders that we have to get ready today [yesterday],” pointing out that her customers tend to order their flowers online nowadays.
In addition to fresh flowers, dried flowers are also taking up a lot of space in the market. At a florist’s shop on Rua de Pedro Nolasco da Silva, dried flowers are displayed to create a gorgeous collage of shapes in the window that caught the eye of passers-by on Valentine’s Day.
The owner said that the dried flowers can be kept looking good for about six months in special containers, and the price of the different flower arrangements can be more than three times the price of an ordinary bouquet of fresh flowers.
In addition to flowers, desserts are also popular Valentine’s Day gifts.
At a small bakery in Rua dos Ervanários, there was a constant queue of people arriving to pick up their Valentine’s Day cake orders in the evening.
The owner said that the cakes were sold out by the evening and most people liked to order the limited offer of Valentine’s Day cakes with strawberries on top of the cake and chocolate decorations with sayings like “I love you” to show their affection for their significant other.
A member of staff in another cake shop nearby said that Valentine’s Day business was “better than usual by more than 50 percent”. She also said that most of the customers who came to pick up their cakes were male customers: “They ordered their cake early to make their other half happy”.
These photos taken yesterday at a florist’s shop and bakery respectively show that flowers and cakes that are among the most popular gifts on Valentine’s Day. – Photos: Ginnie Liang
