Saint Valentine's Day

Tomorrow,February 14, we celebrate Saint Valentine's Day. People in love give cards and presents to each other. There were many Christian martyrs called Valentine. Therefore, there are many theories about who Valentine was. One of them points to a Christian priest who was executed for performing marriages secretly during the time of the Roman emperor Claudius II. One legend says that Valentine was a a Christian prisoner who fell in love with the prison keeper's daughter and wrote a letter to her signing it "from your Valentine".

The festivity of Valentine's Day seems to have originated in pagan times in Rome when people celebrated an annual fertility festival called Lupercalia in mid-February. During the Middle Ages, Saint Valentine became the patron saint of love and lovers in England and France. In 498 AD, Pope Gelasius changed the pagan Feast of Lupercalia for St Valentine's Day, celebrating it February 14.

However, some people claim that romance was linked with Valentine's Day because people in England and France during the Middle Ages believed that birds began to look for their mate from February 14. Thus, we find in the Parlement of Foules (1382) by Chaucer:

For this was on seynt Volantynys day

Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.

One of the most important customs of Valentine's Day is the exchange of love cards called ‘Valentines'. The tradition is said to have initiated in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans who sent a Valentine Day card to his wife from prison. These cards are nicely decorated, being the most common symbols roses, hearts, doves and winged Cupids. These cards are normally signed with a question mark.

Lovers also write poems, the most common modern poem is:

The rose is red, the violet's blue

The honey's sweet, and so are you

Thou are 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.

Gammer Gurton's Garland (1784)

And now, find your Valentine!