Peter - 08 November 2009 10:05 PM
Can somebody explain that to me? Or is it just one of those cultural things that have no real meaning?
It’s basically a sign language shorthand (no pun intended) for “I Love You”. These are the standard American Sign Language signs for individual letters:

Try making the “I”, “L” and “Y” signs all simultaneously with one hand.
And somehow it made its way out of the world of deaf people and into the gesture vocabulary of the general public. Though I’m not sure how far; the symbol probably wouldn’t work for in other languages, but the symbol’s meaning can still be passed on to other cultures without its background.
I’ve never actually seen any images showing it used before that sign language was formalised.