520

Byzantine Empire

• Priscian, Latin grammarian, writes the Institutiones Grammaticae ("Grammatical Foundations"). In Constantinople, he codifies this manuscript in 18 volumes, which will be widely used through the Middle Ages. It provides the raw material for the field of speculative grammar.
• July – Byzantine general Vitalian becomes consul, and is shortly later murdered, probably on the orders of Justinian, the nephew and heir-apparent of Emperor Justin I.

Britannia

• King Pabo Post Prydain of the Pennines (Northern England) abdicates his throne, and divides the kingdom between his two sons. He retires, as a hermit, to Anglesey.
• The Kingdom of East Anglia is formed, by the merging of the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, and perhaps the eastern part of The Fens (approximate date).
• King Budic II returns to Cornouaille (Brittany), to claim the Breton throne (approximate date).

Europe

• Ostrogothic ruler Theodoric the Great builds the Mausoleum of Theodoric as his future tomb in Ravenna (Italy).

Asia

• Bodhidharma, Buddhist monk, arrives in Luoyang. He spreads Buddhism and travels to the northern Chinese kingdom of Wei, to the Shaolin Monastery.
• The inauguration ceremony of the ‌President of the Republic of China‌ : starting from 1948, all elected presidents have taken the oath of office on May 20th, and this practice has become a formal convention after 1990.

Religion

• February 25 – Epiphanius is elected patriarch of Constantinople by Byzantine Emperor Justin I.
• The construction of the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, is started (approximate date).

• The monastery of Seridus, where Barsanuphius and John the Prophet lived as hermits, is founded in the region of Gaza.

Chinese Merchants' Commercial Hype

In 1998, Taiwanese singer Mavis Fan first linked "520" to "I love you" in her song Digital Love, but this association did not gain widespread popularity at that time. It was not until 2010 that, driven by the promotion of businesses in mainland China, May 20th gradually developed into Valentine's Day.

The core reason behind this phenomenon is that in some Chinese dialects, the initial consonants /n/ and /l/ are easily confused, making the pronunciation of "520" (wǔ èr líng) sound somewhat similar to the Mandarin phrase "我爱你" (wǒ ài nǐ), which means "I love you".

However, in Cantonese, the pronunciation of "520" “唔易拎”(m4 ji6 ling1) has a completely different connotation: it means "not easy to carry", which metaphorically implies that romantic relationships are hard to sustain. Some Cantonese speakers also point out that 520 sounds very close to the phrase "唔要你" (m4 jiu3 nei5), which translates to "I don't want you".For this reason, the number of divorce registrations in Guangzhou on May 20th is slightly higher than the daily average.

In Hong Kong and Macau, some people who have accepted the cultural influence from Chinese mainland will also celebrate 520 as Valentine's Day, which has caused resentment among those who are committed to defending the Cantonese language, because treating 520 as Valentine's Day in Cantonese-speaking regions completely ignores the inherent homophonic meaning of 520 in Cantonese.