One can hardly fail to notice that onion day falls immediately after Valentine's day, often one assumes that this is a mere coincidence. However, upon digging further into the history of onion day we discover that this is not the case. It's placement on February the 15th is in fact because of the nature of the previous day.
Onion day is actually a relatively modern festival, being founded as it was in the year 1847. The original reason behind onion day was simply a matter of people wishing once again to eat the food that had been deprived of them during Valentine's day. A day of kissing is not the kind of day on which one tends to consume onions, of course in the nineteenth century courting couples often engaged in the ritual of "Breath freshening" a two week period prior to Valentine's day during which no onions would be consumed. This period tended to leave people feeling saddened as their food was so bland lacking in the delightful flavour provided by onions.
It seemed only natural that once the Valentine's festivities were over people would clamour to once again delight their mouths with the taste of onions. It is not clear who first began the tradition of giving onions to others. However, it soon caught on and spread throughout the world. Whilst Valentine's day was just for couples Onion Day was a day that all could take part in. Giving an onion is not expensive and doesn't have to be just confined to the one you love, it is a blessing for anyone. People even began giving onions to strangers, after all if anyone's going to be eating large quantities of onions you don't want to be too close to them.