Sunday to Sunday, this time. Valentine week runs 7 to 14 February, and in 2027 it starts and ends on a Sunday, about as tidy as a calendar gets.
You won't have college or office on either Sunday. That's where the bigger plans go. The five weekdays are the hard part of the Valentine week list, because those plans have to fit into a lunch break or the walk home after class.
The Valentine week list for 2027
Valentine week 2027, in order. Screenshot it, because by the 6th you'll be checking which day is Teddy Day.
- 7 February, Sunday: Rose Day
- 8 February, Monday: Propose Day (a working day, so think evenings)
- 9 February, Tuesday: Chocolate Day
- 10 February, Wednesday: Teddy Day
- 11 February, Thursday: Promise Day
- 12 February, Friday: Hug Day
- 13 February, Saturday: Kiss Day
- 14 February, Sunday: Valentine's Day, the first one on a Sunday since 2021
Valentine week days, one by one
Rose Day, Sunday 7 February
Buy the roses on Saturday the 6th. Prices go up on the 7th itself, and the stall outside college can be out of red ones by mid-morning.
Roses go to partners and crushes, and the colour does half the talking. Red says love. A yellow one means friendship, so think before handing one to a crush.
The cheap version is one rose in a glass bottle, say a cold coffee bottle with the label soaked off. Keep the stem in water till you leave. A rose that spends three hours in a bag looks it.
Splurge on a bouquet with a rose for every month you've been together. Past two years, switch to one per year. Thirty roses don't fit in one arm.
Book the delivery a few days ahead and give the shop a number someone will pick up, because a Sunday delivery to a locked flat comes back limp.
When you hand it over, say this. "Bought it yesterday so it'd still be standing today. It's in a coffee bottle because I don't own a vase."
Propose Day, Monday 8 February
If you've been sitting on a sentence for months, Monday is when it comes out. People confess to a crush on Propose Day, and some couples ask all over again, ring and all.
Saying it in person costs nothing. Pick the spot you two always end up at, like the bench outside the library, and catch them by 5, before Monday wins.
Over chat, send the HeartCraft proposal card. You type your own question, and their phone shows it with two buttons, Yes and No. The No button dodges every single tap.
When they finally press Yes, a celebration plays on screen and then your photos arrive as a stack of moments. Make yours from the Valentine proposal card page. The running No is a joke, which is why it works best when you're fairly sure of the answer.
A ring at dinner is the bigger version. Borrow one they hardly wear to get the size, and return it before it's missed. Girls propose on the 8th too, and the guide on how to propose a boy has lines for when you freeze.
"I've practised this on the walk home for a week. It sounded better in my head. I like you, and that's the whole speech."
Chocolate Day, Tuesday 9 February
Tuesday is a working day. So Chocolate Day mostly happens at lunch, when everyone swaps a bar or a box with a ribbon round it.
Chilli chocolate bark is the cheap one, made at home on Monday night. Melt dark cooking chocolate, then spread it thin on butter paper.
Chilli flakes and crushed peanuts go on top, and after an hour in the fridge it snaps into shards. Taste one before you pack the rest in a steel box. Too much chilli and you'll both be crying at lunch, for the wrong reason.
For more money, order handmade truffles from a small shop that sells on Instagram, by the first weekend of February. Small kitchens stop taking orders once they're full.
Text this once they've opened the box. "Khud banayi hai. Mirchi jaan-boojh ke daali hai, shape nahi."
Teddy Day, Wednesday 10 February
Six-foot teddies turn up at traffic signals in early February. On Teddy Day people give one, though the size is up to you and their room.
Pocket-size teddies are the cheap end, and one clipped to a college bag gets seen every morning. Buy one with a metal clip. The ones hanging on a thread drop off in the first rush-hour crowd.
If you go big, remember that a teddy as tall as you needs its own chair, and getting it home in an auto takes two people. Somebody at home will also ask who it's from.
On the tag, in your worst handwriting. "Clip him to your bag. He's coming to your 8 am lecture, since I can't make it."
Promise Day, Thursday 11 February
"I'll never be late again" won't make it to the weekend. Promise Day is for promises, said or written, and it goes better when they're small enough to keep by Sunday.
The back of a bus ticket is enough for the cheap version. Write five promises on it, small and specific, like "I'll stop saying two minutes when I mean twenty."
Printed tickets fade. Photograph the back before you hand it over.
Mid budget is a keychain engraved with the coordinates of where you met. Drop a map pin on the exact spot, whether it's the canteen or the coaching centre steps, and order it the weekend before. One wrong digit and you met in the Arabian Sea, so check the decimal point twice.
If they send a photo of the ticket back, reply with this. "Number three starts tonight. Yes, it's the one about two minutes."
Hug Day, Friday 12 February
By Friday evening the week's nearly over, and Hug Day is the easy one. It's hugs all day, the long kind, and friends get them too.
A hug at the college gate is the zero-rupee version. There's always an audience, though. If they hate attention, walk to the corner past the photocopy shop.
The splurge is a heavy blanket big enough for two, with a Friday film at home under it. Wash it once before you wrap it, because new blankets shed fluff.
If you're apart this week, Hug Day is the one that stings. Send the miss you card on Friday night instead. It comes with a day counter plus letters to open later, and the letters are easier to write on Thursday, while you're still awake enough to spell.
The text for Friday morning is short. "I owe you the kind of hug that makes us both miss the bus."
Kiss Day, Saturday 13 February
Saturday night, and Valentine's Day is a few hours away. Keep Kiss Day as shy or as soppy as the two of you like, since a kiss on the forehead counts and so does the chocolate kind.
Cheap and sweet is a bag of foil-wrapped chocolate kisses, given with a real one on the cheek when you say bye. Keep them in your bag. A jeans pocket turns them soft by 8.
Saturday dinner is the big plan this year. Most couples will want a table that night, so book in the first week of February and ask about set menus.
Backup plan: if every table near you is gone, make the dish you had on your first date and eat it on the floor.
"Check the side pocket of your bag. I couldn't decide how many chocolate kisses is romantic, so it's twenty."
Valentine's Day, Sunday 14 February
Nobody needs an alarm on the 14th. Couples go on a date and swap gifts, and if Saturday was the dinner, this one can be slow.
A picnic in the park with a bedsheet and a bag of oranges is the cheap plan. Get there before 11. By afternoon every shady patch has a couple on it.
Brunch at the cafe with the slow waiter costs a bit more. Book a table, because Sunday brunch fills up. He'll still take forty minutes over the eggs, and today nobody minds.
The bigger day out is a local train to the last stop on the line and lunch near the station. Check the Sunday timetable for the last train back, and be home before dark.
Before they're up, send them your first selfie together as a photo puzzle. The HeartCraft photo puzzle turns the selfie into a sliding puzzle, 3x3 or 4x4, and once it's solved they see the picture with your hidden message, then whatever questions you've added for them to answer. Go with 3x3 if they're grumpy before tea.
For the gift itself, there's a whole Valentine's Day gift guide for 2027.
Send it on Saturday night. "Brunch at 11 with the slow waiter, and for once we're in no hurry either."
If you're long distance this week
Anything physical has to be in the post by 1 February. Couriers get busy near the 14th, which this year is a Sunday, when plenty of them don't deliver.
- An unboxing on a video call. Pack one box with eight small packets numbered 7 to 14, and they open one each night while you watch. Ask their roommate to hide the box, or all eight go on the first night.
- Press play on a count of three for a Saturday film. Someone's internet always lags, so pause at the interval and sync again.
- The ticket for your next visit, sent as a screenshot on the 14th. Check their exam dates before you book.
- Roses through a florist in their city on the 7th. Call the shop yourself and ask for a photo before the bunch goes out.
- Speed Post for a handwritten letter, posted the same day as the box.
- A playlist of the songs from your first month, kept under an hour so it fits one ride home.
For a crush, or if you're single
Crushes do better with small moves early in the week and one clear ask before Friday. Check with a mutual friend that they're not seeing anyone first.
- One pink rose on the 7th, handed over with a joke. Red is a lot for a first move.
- Two of the same chocolate on Tuesday, one for you and one for them, "because they were two for one". They'll see through it, which is half the point.
- Ask by Thursday, which leaves time to plan Sunday if it's a yes. The page on how to ask someone to be your valentine helps with the wording.
- Saturday potluck with your single friends, where everyone brings the dish they cook worst. Somebody always turns up with a bottle of cold drink and calls it cooking.
- A single seat for a Sunday film. Couples book in pairs, so a lone seat in a good row is usually still there on the 14th.
Anti-Valentine week, 15 to 21 February
Then there's the joke week. A second calendar goes round online every year, starting the day after Valentine's Day and ending with Breakup Day on the 21st.
It's mostly for singles and anyone who found the first week a bit much. Nobody's meant to slap or kick anyone on the 15th or 16th, so post the meme and leave your ex's number where it is.
- Slap Day, Monday 15 February
- Kick Day, Tuesday 16 February
- Perfume Day, Wednesday 17 February, the one nobody minds
- Flirting Day, Thursday 18 February
- Confession Day, Friday 19 February, for whatever you didn't say on the 8th
- Missing Day, Saturday 20 February
- Breakup Day, Sunday 21 February
Frequently asked questions
Do you have to celebrate every day of Valentine week?
No. Pick two or three days that suit the two of you and let a text cover the rest. Spend the money on the 14th if it's tight.
Is Valentine week marked outside India?
Not much. The days before 14 February are mostly marked in India and South Asia, while elsewhere people mark the 14th itself. A partner who grew up in Toronto may need Teddy Day explained.
What if you're fighting that week?
Talk it out first and hold the gifts back until you have. A rose handed over mid-fight looks like a bribe. If it still isn't settled by Sunday, give the 14th to the talk and save the brunch for another weekend.
What should you do if you've only just started dating?
Small plans and lots of questions. Take turns with the silly ones from a list of couple quiz questions over Chocolate Day lunch, and save the ring for a later February.