Romance will be in the air this week with Valentine’s Day on Thursday. People will be searching for cards with hearts and guys will be carrying flowers and candy to their sweethearts.
But do you know the origin of Valentine’s Day? Actually there are several different legends, but I like this one. Long, long ago, around 268 A.D. in the Roman Empire, men were forbidden to marry before they entered the Roman army. But many soldiers wanted to marry anyway. A priest named Valentine performed so many of the prohibited weddings that the Caesar had him imprisoned. Then legend has it that Valentine wrote his faithful congregation a letter from prison expressing his love for them and signed it “Your Valentine.” That is what some say. Other stories say that Valentine healed the blind daughter of the judge who sentenced him, and the day before Valentine was executed, he wrote the girl a letter signed, “Your Valentine.” That story goes on to say the judge and his whole family became Christians.
Not everybody agrees with this version of the origin of Valentine’s Day. You can go out on the internet and read the other legends to make up your own mind, but I like the priest named Valentine preforming those forbidden wedding stories. The day wasn’t officially established until the end of the 5th century when Pope Celasius declared February 14 as Valentine’s Day. However it was the 19th century before it became the custom to send flowers, candy and cards to the one you loved.
Have you ever written a verse with “Roses are red?” That can go back to Edmund Spenser’s epic The Faerie Queene in 1590.
“She bath’d with roses red, and violets blew,
And all the sweetest flowres, that in the forrest grew.”
The modern cliché Valentine’s Day poem can be found in the collection of English nursery rhymes Gammer Gurton’s Garland (1784)
“The rose is red, the violet’s blue,
The honey’s sweet, and so are you.
Thou art my love and I am thine;
I drew thee to my Valentine:
The lot was cast and then I drew,
And Fortune said it shou’d be you.”
In 1868, the British chocolate company Cadbury created Fancy Boxes — a decorated box of chocolates — in the shape of a heart for Valentine’s Day. Boxes of chocolates quickly became associated with the holiday. In the second half of the 20th century, the practice of exchanging cards was extended to all manner of gifts, including a few diamonds that might have accompanied some Valentine’s Day proposals.
But if you want to stick with the basics, send a card. In the United States, about 190 million Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year, not including the hundreds of millions of cards school children exchange. Back when I was an elementary school room mother for my kids, I always liked the Valentine’s Day parties best since all the kids got cards. It’s a day when everybody can feel loved and popular.
But one of the candy cards that many kids have always gotten on Valentine’s Day will be scarcer this year since Necco, the candy company that made the conversation hearts went out of business. The company that bought them out couldn’t get the equipment going in time for this Valentine’s Day, but they promise candy hearts with “Be Mine” on them will be back in good supply in 2020. The news article I read said that enterprising people did purchase up sacks of the hearts last year and that they are selling for high prices online. So it might be a good year to say “be mine” with chocolates instead.
Some people get depressed on Valentine’s Day if they don’t have a sweetheart or have lost a loved one. But love can come in many forms and the best of all things to remember is that Bible verse many kids learn first in Sunday school. “God is love.” Here is one of the verses that assures us of that love. “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” (1 John 4:16 NIV) So rest assured that we can all feel loved on Valentine’s Day and every day of the year if we dwell on that verse.
Do you like Valentine’s Day? Do you send cards? Give candy or gifts? Maybe enjoy some chocolates?
So Happy Valentine’s Day week and thanks for reading.