Valentine's Day
Saint Valentine's Day, often simply Valentine's Day, is a holiday observed on
February 14 honoring one or more early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine.
It was first established by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD, and was later deleted
from the General Roman Calendar of saints in 1969
by Pope Paul VI.
It is celebrated in hundreds of countries around the world, mostly in the West,
although it remains a working day in all of them.
The day first became associated with romantic love
in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages,
when the tradition of courtly love
flourished. By the 15th century, it had evolved into an occasion in which lovers
expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and
sending greeting cards
(known as "valentines").
Modern Valentine's Day symbols include the heart-shaped
outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have
given way to mass-produced greeting cards.
Numerous early Christian martyrs were
named Valentine.
The Valentines honored on February 14 are Valentine of Rome and Valentine of
Terni . Valentine of Rome was a priest in Rome who was martyred about AD 269
and was buried on the Via Flaminia.
His relics are at the Church of Saint Praxed in Rome, and at Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church
in Dublin, Ireland.
Valentine of Terni became bishop of modern Terni about AD 197 and is said to have
been martyred during the persecution under Emperor Aurelian. He is also
buried on the Via Flaminia, but in a different location than Valentine of Rome.
His relics are at the Basilica of Saint Valentine in Terni.
In the 1969
revision of the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints,
the feast day
of Saint Valentine on February 14 was removed from the General Roman Calendar
and relegated to particular (local or even national) calendars for the
following reason: "Though the memorial of Saint Valentine is ancient, it
is left to particular calendars, since, apart from his name, nothing is known
of Saint Valentine except that he was buried on the Via Flaminia on February
14. The feast day is still celebrated in Balzan where relics of the saint are claimed to be found, and
also throughout the world by Traditionalist Catholics who follow the
older, pre-Second Vatican Council calendar. February
14 is also celebrated as St Valentine's Day in other Christian denominations;
it has, for example, the rank of 'commemoration' in the calendar of the Church of
England and other parts of the Anglican
Communion.
In 1797, a British publisher issued The
Young Man's Valentine Writer, which contained scores of suggested
sentimental verses for the young lover unable to compose his own. Printers had
already begun producing a limited number of cards with verses and sketches,
called "mechanical valentines," and a reduction in
postal rates in the next century ushered in the less personal but
easier practice of mailing Valentines. That, in turn, made it possible for the
first time to exchange cards anonymously, which is taken as the reason for the
sudden appearance of racy verse in an era otherwise prudishly Victorian.
Paper Valentines became so popular in England
in the early 19th century that they were assembled in factories. Fancy
Valentines were made with real lace and ribbons, with paper lace introduced in
the mid-19th century. In the UK, just under half of the population spend money on their Valentines and
around 1.3 billion pounds are spent yearly on cards, flowers, chocolates and
other gifts, with an estimated 25 million cards being sent.
The reinvention of Saint Valentine's Day in the 1840s has been traced by Leigh
Eric Schmidt. As a writer in Graham's American Monthly observed in 1849,
"Saint Valentine's Day... is becoming, nay it has become, a national
holyday." In the United States, the first mass-produced valentines of
embossed paper lace were produced and sold shortly after 1847 by Esther Howland
(1828–1904) of Worcester, Massachusetts.
*The first recorded association of Valentine's Day
with romantic love is in Parlement of Foules (1382) by Geoffrey Chaucer
Chaucer wrote:
“For this
was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.”
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.”
["For this was Saint Valentine's Day, when
every bird cometh there to choose his mate."]
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.
Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes,
And dupp'd the chamber-door;
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.”
—William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5
*”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.”
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.”
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