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Different authorities believe Valentine's
Day began in various ways. Some trace it to an ancient Roman
festival called Lupercalia. Other experts connect the event
with one or more saints of the early Christian church. Still
others link it with an old English belief that birds choose
their mates on February 14. Valentine's Day probably came
from
a combination of all three of those sources, plus the belief
that spring is a time for lovers.
The Catholic Church recognizes
at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus,
all of whom were martyred.
One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served
during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II
decided that single men made better soldiers than those with
wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men --
his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice
of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages
for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were
discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.
Other stories suggest
that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help
Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often
beaten and tortured.
According to one legend,
Valentine actually sent the first 'valentine' greeting himself.
While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love
with a young girl -- who may have been his jailor's daughter
-- who visited him during his confinement. Before his death,
it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed
'From your Valentine,' an expression that is still in use
today.
Another story says Valentine
was an early Christian who made friends with many children.
The Romans imprisoned him because he refused to worship their
gods. The children missed Valentine and tossed loving notes
between the bars of his cell window. This tale may explain
why people exchange messages on Valentine's Day.
According to still another
story, Valentine restored the sight of his jailer's blind
daughter.
Another history of martyrs
mentions a Saint Valentine who was bishop of Interamna and
who may have been martyred in Rome. By being remembered both
in Rome and in Interamna, he may have come to be considered
as two people, but this is not entirely certain.
Many stories say that
Valentine was executed on February 14 about A.D. 269.
A basilica was built in Saint Valentine’s honour in
Rome in A.D. 350, and a catacomb containing his remains was
found on this location.
In Norman French, a language
spoken in Normandy during the Middle Ages, the word galantine
sounds like Valentine and means gallant or lover. This resemblance
may have caused people to think of St. Valentine as the special
saint of lovers.
While some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the
middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's
death or burial -- which probably occurred around 270 A.D
-- others claim that the Christian church may have decided
to celebrate Valentine's feast day in the middle of February
in an effort to Christianise' celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia
festival.
In ancient Rome, February
was the official beginning of spring and was considered a
time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping
them out and then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat called
spelt throughout their interiors. Lupercalia, which began
at the ides of February, February 15, was a fertility festival
dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well
as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. Later on that
day, according to legend, all the young women in the city
would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors
would then each choose a name out of the urn and become paired
for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended
in marriage.
The Roman 'lottery' system
for romantic pairing was eventually declared un-Christian
and outlawed. Although the lottery had been banned by the
church, the mid-February holiday in commemoration of St. Valentine
was still used by Roman men to seek the affection of women.
It became a tradition for the men to give the ones they admired
handwritten messages of affection, containing Valentine's
name.
Pope Gelasius declared
February 14 St. Valentine's Day around 498 A.D.
In 1835, what are believed
to be the remains of St Valentine were given to an Irish Priest
– Father John Spratt – by Pope Gregory XVI, after
he impressed the Pope with his preaching style. The gift,
in a black and gold casket, can still be viewed every Valentine’s
Day at the Whitefriar St Church in Dublin.
Later, during the Middle
Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England thatFebruary
14 was the beginning of birds' mating season, which added
to the idea that the middle of February - Valentine's Day
- should be a day for romance.
People used a different
calendar before 1582, and February 14 came on what is now
February 24.
The earliest records
of Valentine's Day in English tell that birds chose their
mates on that day. Geoffrey Chaucer also wrote in The Parliament
of Fowls, "For this was on St. Valentine's Day, When
every fowl cometh there to choose his mate." Shakespeare
also mentioned this belief in A Midsummer Night's Dream. A
character in the play discovers two lovers in the woods and
asks, "St. Valentine is past; Begin these woodbirds but
to couple now?"
In Great Britain, Valentine's
Day began to be popularly celebrated around the seventeenth
century. By the middle ofthe eighteenth century, it was common
for friends and lovers in all social classes to exchange small
tokens of affection or handwritten notes.
By the end of the century,
printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements
in printing technology. Cheaper postage rates also contributed
to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine's Day
greetings.
The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a
poem (called "poetical or amorous addresses”) written
by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife while he was imprisoned
in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle
of Agincourt. The greeting, which was written in 1415, is
part of the manuscript collection of the British Library.
It is believed that King
Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine
note to Catherine of Valois.
According to the Greeting
Card Association, an estimated one billion valentine cards
are sent each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest
card-sending holiday of the year, after Christmas.
Approximately 85 percent
of all valentines are purchased by women.
Hundreds of years ago
in England, many children dressed up as adults on Valentine's
Day. They went singing from home to home.
In the Middle Ages,
young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their
valentines would be. They would wear these names on their
sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now
means that it is easy for other people to know how you are
feeling.
Some people used to believe
that if a woman saw a robin flying overhead on Valentine's
Day, it meant she would marry a sailor. If she saw a sparrow,
she would marry a poor man and be very happy. If she saw a
goldfinch, she would marry a millionaire.
In Wales wooden love
spoons were carved and given as gifts on February 14th. Hearts,
keys and keyholes were favourite decorations on the spoons.
The decoration meant, "You unlock my heart!"
In some countries, a
young woman may receive a gift of clothing from a young man.
If she keeps the gift, it means she will marry him.
In the United States
and Canada, children exchange valentines with their friends.
In some schools, the children hold a classroom party and put
all the valentines into a box they have decorated. At the
end of the day, the teacher or one child distributes the cards.
Many children make their own valentines from paper doilies,
red paper, wallpaper samples, and pictures cut from magazines.
Sometimes they buy kits that include everything needed to
make valentines. Many children send their largest, fanciest
cards to their parents and teachers.
In the past, in Britain
and Italy, some unmarried women got up before sunrise on Valentine's
Day. They stood by the window watching for a man to pass.
They believed that the first man they saw, or someone who
looked like him, would marry them within a year. William Shakespeare,
the English playwright, mentions this belief in Hamlet.
Ophelia sings:
Good morrow! 'Tis St. Valentine's Day
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your valentine!
In Denmark, people send
pressed white flowers called snowdrops to their friends. Danish
men also send a type of valentine called a gaekkebrev (joking
letter). The sender writes a rhyme but does not sign his name.
Instead, he signs the valentine with dots, one dot for each
letter of his name. If the woman who gets it guesses his name,
he rewards her with an Easter egg on Easter.
Many Valentine's Day
customs involved ways that single women could learn who their
future husbands would be. Englishwomen of the 1700's wrote
men's names on scraps of paper, rolled each in a little piece
of clay, and dropped them all into water. The first paper
that rose to the surface supposedly had the name of a woman's
true love.
Also in the 1700's, unmarried
women pinned five bay leaves to their pillows on the eve of
Valentine's Day. They pinned one leaf to the center of the
pillow and one to each corner. If the charm worked, they saw
their future husbands in their dreams.
In Derbyshire, a county in central England, young women circled
the church 3 or 12 times at midnight and repeated such verses
as:
’I sow hempseed.
Hempseed I sow.
He that loves me best,
Come after me now.’
Their true loves then supposedly appeared.
One of the oldest customs
was the practice of writing women's names on slips of paper
and drawing them from a jar. The woman whose name was drawn
by a man became his valentine, and he paid special attention
to her.
In some areas, a young
man gave his valentine a pair of gloves. Wealthy men gave
fancy balls to honour their valentines.
One description of Valentine's
Day during the 1700's tells how groups of friends met to draw
names. For several days, each man wore his valentine's name
on his sleeve. The saying wearing his heart on his sleeve
probably came from this practice.
The custom of sending
romantic messages gradually replaced that of giving gifts.
In the 1700's and 1800's, many stores sold handbooks called
valentine writers. These books included verses to copy and
various suggestions about writing valentines.
Commercial valentines
were first made in the early 1800's. Many of them were blank
inside, with space for the sender to write a message.
The British artist Kate
Greenaway became famous for her valentines in the late 1800's.
Many of her cards featured charming pictures of happy children
and lovely gardens.
Many valentines of the
1800's were hand painted. Some featured a fat cupid or showed
arrows piercing a heart. Many cards had satin, ribbon, or
lace trim. Others were decorated with dried flowers, feathers,
imitation jewels, mother-of-pearl, sea shells, or tassels.
From the mid-1800's to
the early 1900's, many people sent comic valentines called
penny dreadfuls. These cards sold for a penny and featured
such insulting verses as:
'Tis all in vain your simpering looks,
You never can incline,
With all your bustles, stays, and curls,
To find a valentine.’
Many penny dreadfuls
and other old valentines have become collectors' items.
Doves and pigeons mate
for life and therefore were used as a symbol of "fidelity."
Cupid, another symbol
of the holiday, became associated with it because he was the
son of Venus, the Roman god of love and beauty.
In the 1840's the first
mechanical valentines were introduced. By pulling a tab, a
figure or object on the card could be made to move. Some had
elaborate honeycomb pop-outs or various other three-dimensional
features.
A “writer”
was a booklet containing a vast array of verses and messages
which could be copied onto gilt-edged letter paper or other
decorative sheets. One popular writer contained not only "be
my valentine" type verses for men to send, but also acceptance
or "answers" which women could return.
Proof of the less attractive,
cheap-looking valentine is seen in the "vinegar valentine."
John McLaughlin, a New York printer, created these comic valentines
that were printed on cheap paper in crude colours. His messages
made fun of old maids, teachers, and others.
There were many different
types of handmade valentines, including:
- Acrostic valentines - had verses in which the first lines
spelled out the loved one's name.
- Cut-out valentines - made by folding the paper several
times and then cutting out a lacelike design with small,
sharp, pointed scissors
- Pinprick valentines - made by pricking tiny holes in a
paper with a pin or needle, creating the look of lace
- Theorem or Poona valentines - designs that were painted
through a stencil cut in oil paper, a style that came from
the Orient.
- Rebus valentines - verses in which tiny pictures take
the place of some of the words (an eye would take the place
of the word I).
- Puzzle Purse valentines - a folded puzzle, to read and
refold. Among their many folds were verses that had to be
read in a certain order.
- Fraktur valentines - had ornamental lettering in the style
of illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages.
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