Valentine’s has rich history
By By Michelle Blaylock, Mom’s Corner
Interested in a quick history lesson? I think just about everyone knows that Valentine’s Day is in celebration of St. Valentine, but who was St. Valentine and why do we celebrate in February? Apparently, that answer is open for some discussion.
According to History.com, St. Valentine was a Catholic priest and there are three legends associated with him. The first legend has St. Valentine defying a Roman emperor who believed that young unmarried men made better soldiers. St. Valentine ignored the emperor and continued to marry young lovers. The emperor was so angry he had St. Valentine put to death.
In the second legend, St. Valentine also angers a Roman Emperor by helping Christians escape prisons where they were brutally abused and tortured.
In the third legend St. Valentine either befriends a jailer’s daughter and restores her sight or he falls in love with her, either way the night before he is executed he writes her a note and signs it “From your Valentine.” Obviously, that phrase is still in use today.
Why we celebrate in February is also a little questionable. Some believe that is when St. Valentine was killed/buried, while others believe it is because the Christian church was trying to obliviate the celebration of Lupercalia which was a fertility festival dedicated to the Roman god, Faunus.
More than likely it was probably a combination of both. Some time around 498 A.D. Pope Gelasius declared that Feb. 14 was officially St. Valentine’s Day.
However, it wasn’t until the eighteenth century that people began exchanging small gifts and handwritten notes on Valentine’s Day.
In the 1840’s, a woman named Esther A. Howland began to make mass-produced valentines and the rest is history.
How about those cute little conversation hearts? They were first made in 1866 and about 8 billion are sold each year. There are also about 35 million boxes of chocolate sold each year as well.
I hope you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day. If you have a question or comment for Mom’s Corner, please send it to: moms-corner@juno.com
