Valentine’s Day Warms Up Couples for International Kissing Day

Feb. 14 is known as Valentine's Day in many Western cultures. Yet International Kissing Day is not celebrated at the same time. The Huffington Post reports International Kissing Day is celebrated July 6. The day is also known as World Kiss Day.

The point of International Kissing Day is to focus on the art of kissing your mate. Yet there is one place in Italy that makes a contest out it. Every July 6, kissing becomes more and more like an Olympic sport in Riccione, Italy, according to China Daily.

Couples can be crowned the world's greatest kissers by engaging in such events as kissing underwater and basketball kissing. The annual event is called the World Kissing Competition. It's only fitting that Italy, the country of romance and taking things slow, would host such a romantic event.

Italy isn't the only country that has promoted kissing. In 2011, the city of Pattaya, Thailand, hosted a contest to try to break the Guinness Book of World Records' mark for the longest kiss. The Huffington Post states 14 couples puckered up on Valentine's Day a year ago to try to break the time of 32 hours, seven minutes and 14 seconds. As many as seven couples were still smooching in Thailand 36 hours after the event started.

In this case, kissing was an endurance sport for the physically fit. Even marathon runners are usually done in about 2 ½ hours. Some endurance sports for walkathons and such for fundraising often last 12 or 24 hours. Yet seven couples in Thailand outlasted the clock for 36 hours of kissing.

The longest-lasting couple in Thailand kissed for a world record time of 46 hours, 24 minutes and nine seconds. The event was hosted by Louis Tussaud's Waxworks. Ekkachai and Laksana Tiranarat obliterated the old record by more than 14 hours.

And of course, the more passionate the kissing the better. Valentine's Day is seen as too commercialized for the celebration of kissing. Because of the money involved in Valentine's Day, organizers of World Kiss Day opted for a separate day to focus on one simple act of love unlike any other.

Wired reports the art of kissing goes beyond a simple smooch. The first mention of kissing was revealed in Sanskrit Vedic texts nearly 3,500 years old. The only other group of animals on Earth that reportedly engage in kissing are great apes such as chimpanzees and gorillas.

WKRG states the United Nations adopted International Kissing Day around 20 years ago. Not only does it promote a sense of romance, but kissing just might be a way to solve world peace one happy couple at a time.

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.