VALENTINE DAY HISTORY
Valentine's Day was named after Saint Valentine. Saint Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than married men with wives and children. Emperor Claudius II outlawed marriage for all young men. Valentine continued to perform marriages in secret. Valentine was arrested and Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Valentine was beheaded around 270 A.D. and was later declared a Saint by the Catholic Church.
When Valentine was imprisoned, he fell in love with the blind daughter of his jailer. He miraculously heal her from her blindness before his execution. Before his death, he wrote the first 'valentine' greeting card. He wrote a message to her and end with "From your Valentine." That phrase has been used ever since them on millions of Valentine Cards.
In 1835, an Irish Priest named John Spratt gave Pope Gregory XVI the remains of Saint Valentine in a black and gold casket. The casket can be viewed every Valentine's Day at Whitefriar Street Church in Dublin, Ireland.
The Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine's feast day in the middle of February to rid the Roman pagan celebration called the Lupercalia. For eight hundred years before Valentine's Day, February 15 was the official beginning of spring and the Romans celebrated Lupercalia. It was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, Romulus, and Remus. Faunus was the Roman god of agriculture while Romulus and Remus were the founders of Rome. The celebration featured a lottery in which young men would draw the names of teenage girls from a big urn. The girl chosen was assigned to that young man would be his sexual companion during the remaining year. These matches often ended in marriage.
Pope Gelasius made a change in the lottery. Instead of the names of young women, the big urn would contain the names of saints. Both men and women were allowed to draw from the box. They were suppose follow the ways of the saint they drew during the
rest of the year. Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day around 498 A.D. outlawed the Lupercalia festival. Valentine Day remained a Church holiday until 1969, when Pope Paul VI took it from the calender.
Valentine Cards
The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife. He was arrested after the Battle of Agincourt and was jailed at the Tower of London in 1415. The greeting is now at the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England. Several years later, King Henry V had writer John Lydgate to compose a valentine card to Catherine of Valois.
Most Valentine cards were sung and spoken until the 15th century. Valentines were mostly written letters in Europe. By the 16th century, valentines were almost always written.
Americans began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. After 1723, people composed composed handmade Valentine cards using "writers." A writer was a booklet containing verses and messages which a person copied onto fancy letter paper. One writer contained verses for men to send and "answers" which women could return. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began to sell the first mass-produced valentines in America. She was a Mount Holyoke College student and her father was a a stationer in Worcester, MA. Her father imported valentines every year from England until Esther decided to create her own valentine messages. She began importing lace, fine papers, and other supplies for her valentines. She employed several people and her brothers to make her "Worcester" valentines. Her sales amounted to about a hundred thousand dollars annually.
In the 1840's the first mechanical valentines were introduced by pulling a tab making objects on the card move. Some cards had honeycomb pop-outs or three-dimensional features. Valentines made of fine papers and decorated with satin, ribbon, pictures, or lace.
During the Gay Nineties they were adorned with garish spun glass, mother-of-pearl, imitation jewels, or silk fringe. John McLaughlin, a New York printer, created comic valentines that were printed on cheap paper in crude colors called "vinegar valentine". His messages made fun of old maids, teachers, and others. In 1870, American cartoonist Charles Howard made "penny dreadfuls" card which cost a penny and was dreadfully funny.
American school children usually celebrate St. Valentine's Day with a party at school. The children make a decorated box with a slot in the top called a Valentine's Box which they store the cards they get from their classmates. In the United States over 1 billion valentine cards are sent each year which ranks second only to Christmas. Parents get 1 out of every 5 valentines. Women buy 85% of all valentines and parents get 1 out of every 5 valentines.
VALENTINE SYMBOLS
There are many symbols related to Valentine Day. These symbols are put on Valentine cards. They had pictures of turtledoves, lovers' knots, cupids, and hearts. All of these symbols have become associated with love and lovers. The history of these symbols can be traced to ancient times. People also believed that birds began mating on February 14 and chose that date for Valentine Day. Doves chose their mate for life and are used as a symbol of love and loyalty.
Cupid is another symbol of the holiday. He is a symbol of love because he was the son of Venus, the Roman god of love and beauty. He is the winged child whose arrows are shot into the hearts of potential lovers. Cupid often appears on Valentine cards.
Centuries ago, a woman would drop her handkerchief in front of the man she liked so she could met him when he picked it up. Lace has always been part of women's handkerchiefs and it became a symbol for Valentine's Day. Most of the items linked to Valentine's Day came from old-fashioned customs.
In the Middle Ages, a lot of people couldn't read or write. When they had to sign a document, they would make an X in place of their name. In front of witnesses the signer would kiss the X to show themselves as trustworthy. The kiss has since come to be represented by an X and is used as a symbol for Valentine Day.
A love knot is a symbol of eternal love because its loops have no beginnings or ends. They were made of ribbon or drawn on paper to express ones love on Valentine Cards.
VALENTINE GIFTS
One of the earliest Valentine's Day gifts were candies. The most common were chocolates in heart shaped boxes. More Men then women buy the millions of boxes of candy and the millions of bouquets of flowers for Valentine's Day gifts.
Giving flowers dates back to the 1700s when Charles II of Sweden made popular "the language of flowers" in Europe. Books stated certian flowers had certian meanings and entire conversations could be carried out using a bouquet of flowers. The meaning of the red rose is still well known as the flower of passion and love.
The rose has become the traditional Valentine's Day flower. The red rose is also the favorite flower of Venus, the goddess of love. Valentine's Day and Mother's Day are the biggest holidays for giving flowers.
In England, little children went sang about St. Valentine and gave small gifts. It was customary to place valentines on their friends' doorsteps. Today in most countries, people give gifts of perfume and other items.
In Wales, wooden love spoons were carved and given as gifts on February 14th. Hearts, keys, and keyholes were favorite decorations on the spoons and meant "You unlock my heart".
In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a urn to see who their valentines would be. They would wear the drawn names on their sleeves for one week. The saying "To wear your heart on your sleeve" means that it is easy for other people to see how you are feeling.
In some countries, a woman may receive a gift of clothing from a man. If she keeps the gift, it means she will marry him. Today men give fancy lace underwear garments or night gowns to their lovers.
VALENTINE CUSTOMS
Some people believed 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.
A love seat is a wide chair to seat one woman and her wide dress. Later, the love seat or courting seat had two sections, often in an S-shape. In this way, a couple could sit together and face each other.
If you think of five or so names of boys or girls you might marry while twisting the stem of an apple and reciting their names until the stem comes off. You will marry the person whose name you were saying when the stem fell off.
Pick a dandelion that is all white cause it has gone to seed. If you take a deep breath and blow the seeds into the wind and then count the seeds that remain on the stem. The number that remains is the number of children you will have. Also
if you cut an apple in half and count how many seeds are inside, that will tell how many children you will have.
Another custom says a young girl was supposed to marrythe first eligible male she met on this day. Also a girl could have her future spouse appear by going to the graveyard on St. Valentine's Eve at midnight. She has to sing a prescribed chant and run around the church twelve times. As you can see, Valentine Day is a very old holiday and continues to bring lovers close together even today.
Now that you know all about the history of Valentine's Day, come take a test to see how much you really know! Click on the take test or forward link below to take the test. Good Luck!
