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Tough Love<\/strong><\/h3>\nIt all may have begun with the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia. This was a pagan festival celebrating fertility. Goats would have been sacrificed and then their skins cut and fashioned into whips. The men would run through the city whipping the crowds who had gathered. The men would also strike women and young girls who wished to conceive.\u00a0They believed being whipped would help ensure fertility, eliminate the risk of sterility and would ease the pain of childbirth.<\/p>\n
This festival was said to have been celebrated between February 13th\u00a0and 15th. Pope Gelasius I abolished Lupercalia deeming the celebrations ‘un-Christian’ around 496 AD. He declared February 14th St. Valentine\u2019s Day after two martyrs by the name of Valentine. These men were both executed on February 14th but in different years. It is easy to make the connection between Lupercalia and the Valentine’s Day as\u00a0a romantic celebration. Even though Lupercalia is hardly the day of love and romance, the fact it was a festival to boost fertility leads experts to assume there are links.<\/p>\n
Who is St. Valentine?<\/strong><\/h3>\nThere are several martyrdom stories attached to the different Valentines connected to February 14th. The most popular hagiographical account connected to this day is the story of Saint Valentine of Rome. He was a priest in the 3rd century. According to legend, Emperor Claudius II banned his soldiers from getting married. This is because he believed married men made terrible soldiers. However, Valentine was opposed to this and continued to perform marriages for soldiers in secret. Unfortunately, he was caught, and as a result of his actions was jailed and sentenced to death. While he was imprisoned he fell in love with the jailer\u2019s daughter. On the eve of his execution, he sent a letter to the jailer\u2019s daughter signed \u2018from your Valentine\u2019.<\/p>\n
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The first connection between love and St. Valentine\u2019s Day<\/strong><\/h3>\nThere are many theories as to how St. Valentine\u2019s Day became the day that we know and celebrate. However in 1381, the Geoffrey Chaucer poem \u2018Parlement of Foules\u2019 may have been the first documented reference associated with love and Valentine\u2019s Day. Scholars believe the poem was written in honour of the courtship and marriage of Richard II and Anne of Bohemia. Due to this the poem is said to be the first known connection between love and Valentine’s Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor this was on seynt Volantynys day
\nWhan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n[” For this was on St. Valentine’s Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate.”]<\/em><\/p>\nChaucer used the rural English belief that birds find their love on Valentine’s Day. Some may argue that it is unlikely that birds would have begun mating in mid-February in England. However, in Chaucer\u2019s time, the Julian calendar would have been used meaning February 14th would have fallen on what would now be February 23rd. It is\u00a0frequently argued how Valentine’s Day came to be a day of love and affection. There will always be many different versions of how it started and scholars will argue the real origin. Valentine’s Day seems to be quite mysterious as there is no real documented origin of how the day became to be about love.<\/p>\n
Valentine\u2019s Day in Popular Literature<\/strong><\/h3>\nEver since Chaucer\u2019s poem, there have been numerous mentions of Valentine\u2019s Day in popular literature. Like Chaucer, John Donne also used the marriage of birds as a starting point for his epithalamium. It was written to celebrate the marriage between Lady Elizabeth and Frederick V. Count of Palatinate. The two married on Valentine\u2019s Day. In the William Shakespeare play Hamlet, which was written around 1600-1601, the character Ophelia spoke of Saint Valentine\u2019s Day: –<\/p>\n
\u201cTo-morrow is Saint Valentine’s day
\nAll in the morning betime
\nAnd I a maid at your window
\nTo be your Valentine…\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nThe character sings of her courtship of a man on the eve of Valentine\u2019s Day. Shakespeare wrote many sonnets and poems about love. Even though he may not be speaking of Valentine\u2019s Day directly, people will often use his work to express their love.<\/p>\n
There is one type of poem which is synonymous with Valentine\u2019s Day.\u00a0 Since the 18th Century, the popular ‘Roses are red, Violets are blue…’ poems have been used as Valentine’s Day greetings. The most popular modern version of this is \u201cRoses are Red, Violets are blue, Sugar is sweet, And so are you.\u201d<\/strong> Since it was first used as a greeting there have been many variations and even satirical versions of the poem. However, the poem can be sourced back to Edmund Spenser\u2019s The Faerie Queene written in 1590.<\/p>\nValentine\u2019s Day Cards<\/strong><\/h3>\nIt was estimated that around \u00a31.6 Billion was spent on Valentine’s Day cards last year. The earliest surviving Valentine\u2019s Day greeting dates back to the 15th Century. The Duke of Orleans wrote the letter to his wife while imprisoned in the Tower of London calling his wife his Valentine.<\/p>\n
\u201cJe suis desja d’amour tann\u00e9
\nMa tres doulce Valentin\u00e9e\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n[This translates roughly to, \u201cI am already sick of love, my very gentle Valentine\u201d.]<\/em><\/p>\nThe sending of Valentine\u2019s Day greetings became more popular during the 18th century. However, unlike the cards we see today, these cards were often handmade and decorated with romantic symbols. This began with a British publisher issuing \u2018The Young Man\u2019s Valentine Writer\u2019. The book contained sentimental verses for those who cannot express their own love. These verses were then printed with sketches and called \u2018mechanical valentines\u2019. It was not until the early 19th century that the manufacturing of Valentine\u2019s Day cards became industrialised. Due to this, the tradition of sending cards to loved ones became an annual thing.<\/p>\n
The first connection between love and St. Valentine\u2019s Day<\/strong><\/h3>\nThere are many theories as to how St. Valentine\u2019s Day became the day that we know and celebrate. However in 1381, the Geoffrey Chaucer poem \u2018Parlement of Foules\u2019 may have been the first documented reference associated with love and Valentine\u2019s Day. Scholars believe the poem was written in honour of the courtship and marriage of Richard II and Anne of Bohemia. Due to this the poem is said to be the first known connection between love and Valentine’s Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor this was on seynt Volantynys day [” For this was on St. Valentine’s Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate.”]<\/em><\/p>\n Chaucer used the rural English belief that birds find their love on Valentine’s Day. Some may argue that it is unlikely that birds would have begun mating in mid-February in England. However, in Chaucer\u2019s time, the Julian calendar would have been used meaning February 14th would have fallen on what would now be February 23rd. It is\u00a0frequently argued how Valentine’s Day came to be a day of love and affection. There will always be many different versions of how it started and scholars will argue the real origin. Valentine’s Day seems to be quite mysterious as there is no real documented origin of how the day became to be about love.<\/p>\n Ever since Chaucer\u2019s poem, there have been numerous mentions of Valentine\u2019s Day in popular literature. Like Chaucer, John Donne also used the marriage of birds as a starting point for his epithalamium. It was written to celebrate the marriage between Lady Elizabeth and Frederick V. Count of Palatinate. The two married on Valentine\u2019s Day. In the William Shakespeare play Hamlet, which was written around 1600-1601, the character Ophelia spoke of Saint Valentine\u2019s Day: –<\/p>\n The character sings of her courtship of a man on the eve of Valentine\u2019s Day. Shakespeare wrote many sonnets and poems about love. Even though he may not be speaking of Valentine\u2019s Day directly, people will often use his work to express their love.<\/p>\n There is one type of poem which is synonymous with Valentine\u2019s Day.\u00a0 Since the 18th Century, the popular ‘Roses are red, Violets are blue…’ poems have been used as Valentine’s Day greetings. The most popular modern version of this is \u201cRoses are Red, Violets are blue, Sugar is sweet, And so are you.\u201d<\/strong> Since it was first used as a greeting there have been many variations and even satirical versions of the poem. However, the poem can be sourced back to Edmund Spenser\u2019s The Faerie Queene written in 1590.<\/p>\n It was estimated that around \u00a31.6 Billion was spent on Valentine’s Day cards last year. The earliest surviving Valentine\u2019s Day greeting dates back to the 15th Century. The Duke of Orleans wrote the letter to his wife while imprisoned in the Tower of London calling his wife his Valentine.<\/p>\n [This translates roughly to, \u201cI am already sick of love, my very gentle Valentine\u201d.]<\/em><\/p>\n The sending of Valentine\u2019s Day greetings became more popular during the 18th century. However, unlike the cards we see today, these cards were often handmade and decorated with romantic symbols. This began with a British publisher issuing \u2018The Young Man\u2019s Valentine Writer\u2019. The book contained sentimental verses for those who cannot express their own love. These verses were then printed with sketches and called \u2018mechanical valentines\u2019. It was not until the early 19th century that the manufacturing of Valentine\u2019s Day cards became industrialised. Due to this, the tradition of sending cards to loved ones became an annual thing.<\/p>\n
\nWhan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nValentine\u2019s Day in Popular Literature<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\u201cTo-morrow is Saint Valentine’s day
\nAll in the morning betime
\nAnd I a maid at your window
\nTo be your Valentine…\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nValentine\u2019s Day Cards<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\u201cJe suis desja d’amour tann\u00e9
\nMa tres doulce Valentin\u00e9e\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n