Valentine February 14 – A Romantic Day

Every year on February 14, Valentine’s Day, also known as Saint Valentine’s Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is observed. Through later folk traditions, it evolved from its origins as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs by the name of Saint Valentine to become a prominent cultural, religious, and commercial festival of romance and love in many parts of the world.

Valentine’s Day is associated with a number of martyrdom tales, including one about Saint Valentine of Rome, who was imprisoned for helping Christians who were being persecuted by the Roman Empire in the third century. Early legend has it that Saint Valentine healed the blind daughter of his jailer.

Many later additions to the legend have improved its connection to the theme of love. For example, an 18th-century addition to the legend asserts that he wrote the jailer’s daughter a letter addressed to “Your Valentine” as a parting gift before his execution. Another tradition holds that Saint Valentine officiated at weddings for Christian soldiers who were prohibited from getting married.

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Valentine’s Day was observed on February 14 according to the Gelasian Sacramentary, which dates to the eighth century. It appears that by association with the “lovebirds” of early spring, the day came to be connected with romantic love in the 14th and 15th centuries, when ideas of courtly love blossomed. It evolved into a time when couples would send greeting cards, flowers, and other forms of sweets as a way to show their love for one another in 18th-century England (known as “valentines”).

Doves, the winged Cupid, and the outline of a heart are still utilized as Valentine’s Day symbols today. Handwritten Valentines have been replaced by mass-produced greeting cards since the 19th century. In Italy, Saint Valentine’s Keys are presented to youngsters to ward off epilepsy (known as Saint Valentine’s Malady) as well as to lovers “as a romantic symbol and an invitation to unlock the giver’s heart.”

Although Saint Valentine’s Day is a recognized feast day in the Anglican Communion and the Lutheran Church, it is not a national holiday in any nation. On July 6 in honor of Roman presbyter Saint Valentine and on July 30 in honor of Hieromartyr Valentine, the Bishop of Interamna, several areas of the Eastern Orthodox Church also observe Saint Valentine’s Day (modern Terni).

Valentine During Modern Times.

The Young Man’s Valentine Writer, a book of suggested romantic poetry for the young admirer unable to create his own, was published in 1797 by a British publisher. A small run of “mechanical valentines,” or cards with verses and drawings, had already started to be printed.

Early in the 19th century, paper Valentines were so well-liked in England that they were put together in factories. Real lace and ribbons were used to create elaborate Valentine’s Day cards before paper lace was introduced in the middle of the 19th century. 60,000 Valentine cards were mailed in the United Kingdom in 1835 despite the high cost of shipping.

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Following Sir Rowland Hill’s postal reforms in 1840, a decrease in postal rates led to the creation of the postage stamp (Penny Black), which increased the number of Valentines sent by 400,000 in only one year and brought about the less intimate but more convenient habit of shipping Valentines. That enabled the first anonymous card exchange, which is seen as the cause of the rapid emergence of racy verse in the normally prudish Victorian period.

Saint Valentine’s Day “is becoming, nay it has become, a national holyday,” a writer in Graham’s American Monthly wrote in 1849. In Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel Mr. Harrison’s Confessions (1851), the custom of exchanging Valentine’s Day cards was well-established enough to serve as a narrative device: “I burst in with my explanations: ‘The valentine I know nothing about.’ ‘It is in your handwriting,’ he remarked coldly.” Since 2001, the Greeting Card Association has been giving an annual “Esther Howland Award for a Greeting Card Visionary.”

Handwritten messages have made way for mass-produced greeting cards since the 19th century. Just under half of the population in the UK spends money on Valentine’s Day, with about £1.9 billion being spent on cards, flowers, chocolates, and other gifts in 2015. The Valentine’s Day industry in the middle of the 19th century foreshadowed later commercialized holidays in the United States.

For Valentine’s Day in 1868, the British chocolate manufacturer Cadbury produced Fancy Boxes, a decorated chocolate box in the shape of a heart. Boxes of packed chocolates soon came to symbolize the occasion. The tradition of exchanging cards was expanded to include all kinds of gifts, such as gifting jewelry, in the second part of the 20th century.

According to the U.S. Greeting Card Association, around 190 million Valentine cards are mailed in the US each year. A family member other than the husband or wife receives half of those Valentines, typically a child. Teachers now receive the most Valentines when the number of cards exchanged in school activities is taken into account, bringing the total to 1 billion. The typical American spent $131 more on Valentine’s Day in 2013 than they did in 2010, an increase of $108.

New traditions are emerging as a result of the growth in Internet popularity at the turn of the century. Every year, millions of individuals create and send Valentine’s Day greetings using digital tools like e-cards, love vouchers, and printable cards. Due to its commercialization, some people view Valentine’s Day as a Hallmark holiday.

The Anglican Church and the Lutheran Church currently observe St. Valentine’s Day (the Feast of St. Valentine) with liturgical services that include the optional rite of the renewal of marital vows. A novena prayer was started in 2016 by the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales “to support single people seeking a spouse ahead of St. Valentine’s Day.”

The day is widely observed not only in the United States but also in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Argentina, France, Mexico, and South Korea. It is the most popular wedding anniversary in the Philippines, and mass weddings with hundreds of couples don’t happen infrequently on that day. The occasion has evolved to include displays of affection amongst family members and friends. On this day, a lot of youngsters share Valentine’s cards with one another.

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