section_path: Celebration and status worldwide/Europe/Spain
section_name: Spain
paragraph_text: Spain
  
  The holiday was first introduced in Spain through a 1948 advertisement campaign by the department store chain Galerías Preciados, and had become widespread by the 1970s.
  
  Known as "San Valentín", the holiday is celebrated the same way as in the rest of the West. However, in Catalonia, the celebration is overshadowed by the highly popular Saint George's Day (Catalan: Diada de Sant Jordi), a Catalan tradition established in the late Middle Ages which already serves to the same romantic purpose of Valentine's Day.
  
  The holiday was first introduced in Spain through a 1948 advertisement campaign by the department store chain Galerías Preciados, and had become widespread by the 1970s.
  
  Known as "San Valentín", the holiday is celebrated the same way as in the rest of the West. However, in Catalonia, the celebration is overshadowed by the highly popular Saint George's Day (Catalan: Diada de Sant Jordi), a Catalan tradition established in the late Middle Ages which already serves to the same romantic purpose of Valentine's Day.