--- title: Valentine's Day Weird Fact: In 1978, the Holiday Was 96 Hours Long description: That's four whole days of romance canonical: https://time.com/3701196/valentines-day-1978/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-13T12:00:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:15:55.481Z article:section: History og:title: Valentine's Day Weird Fact: In 1978, the Holiday Was 96 Hours Long og:description: That's four whole days of romance og:url: https://time.com/3701196/valentines-day-1978/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3599cd4ae64504fd/69877e4106f2c1169d333ddc/heart.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Heart in Snow og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Valentine's Day Weird Fact: In 1978, the Holiday Was 96 Hours Long twitter:description: That's four whole days of romance twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3599cd4ae64504fd/69877e4106f2c1169d333ddc/heart.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Time Valentine's Day Was 96 Hours Long ## Video: First Grade Valentines [Watch (HLS stream): First Grade Valentines](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/dxn3NutC.m3u8) (2:35)  _Published 2010-02-10. Out of the mouths of babes, love is explained. Brooklyn first graders write and read their valentines and describe the meaning of Valentines Day_  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 13, 2015 12:00 PM UTC  A heart is painted in the snow on a table of a sidewalk cafe in Berlin on another snowy Valentine's Day, in 2005 A heart is painted in the snow on a table of a sidewalk cafe in Berlin on another snowy Valentine's Day, in 2005Jochen Luebke—AFP/Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 13, 2015 12:00 PM UTC Valentine’s Day of 1978 shouldn’t have been a particularly special one — in fact, for a while it looked like it might end up being one of the worst in history. That year, early February brought with it the legendary [Blizzard of ’78](http://www.erh.noaa.gov/box/papers/blizzard78/mainblizzardof78.htm) to Massachusetts. It was, quite literally, a perfect storm: certain meteorological conditions combined to keep the storm off the Atlantic coast for a few days, where it built up force. When it hit, around February 5 of that year, thousands were stranded or worse, having been unprepared for the magnitude of the blizzard. The storm continued for days. Dozens of inches of snow were recorded, along with flooding and high winds. Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis [declared](http://time.com/vault/issue/1978-02-20/page/13) three days of official holiday, to keep people off the road — and, about a week later, he made a similar declaration. Though the storm had finally passed, Valentine’s Day was still disrupted, at great cost to the hearts and wallets of the state — so he decided to act. As TIME [reported](http://time.com/vault/issue/1978-02-27/page/29) on the Feb. 27, 1978, issue: --- > “” --- Those four days of Valentine’s celebration are unlikely to be repeated any time soon — but there’s always a chance: Boston’s forecast for Saturday shows a chance of snow. **_Read more about love, with TIME’s 2008 cover story about the science of romance, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Why We Need Love to Survive](http://time.com/vault/issue/2008-01-28/page/1/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3701196/valentines-day-1978/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3701196/valentines-day-1978/"},"headline":"The Time Valentine's Day Was 96 Hours Long","datePublished":"2015-02-13T12:00:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:15:55.481Z","description":"Thanks to one romantic governor","url":"https://time.com/3701196/valentines-day-1978/","keywords":["Bizarre","Love","Valentine's Day","Holidays","Massachusetts"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3599cd4ae64504fd/69877e4106f2c1169d333ddc/heart.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3599cd4ae64504fd/69877e4106f2c1169d333ddc/heart.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Heart in Snow","caption":"A heart is painted in the snow on a tabl","creditText":"Jochen Luebke—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/bizarre/","name":"Bizarre"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3701196/valentines-day-1978/","name":"The Time Valentine's Day Was 96 Hours Long"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"First Grade Valentines","description":"Out of the mouths of babes, love is explained. 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