Happy Valentine's Day

I know I have deserted you. I fled. I know. I am sorry. I truly am.


Dear blog,
Here I am, with some thoughts and a promise that I will write to you regularly. Now now don't be so angry, after all I am your kin. We have been together in all the crests and troughs. Come on, smile now. :-) Today is Saint Valentine's Day.



Valentine's Day



A day when lovers express their love for each other by sending flowers, cards, and confectionery. This holiday has been named after two Early Christian martyrs, called as Valentines. This holiday became associated wuth 'romantic love' in the High Middle Ages.
Read about the period here.



The February festivities link



A certain Professor alleges that Geoffrey Chaucer, known for his work, The Canterbury Tales, was the reason behind the romanticizing of St. Valentine's Day. Its believed that the Catholic Church had recognized three martyrs as Valentines. They were:

  • Valentine of Rome

  • Valentine of Terni

  • and a Valentine who was martyred in Africa


In the early 1840s, the custom of exchanging Valentine cards existed in England, before it reached the Americas. In the later half of the 20th century, men began giftinf women. This extended from cards to flowers, chocolates, and jewellery.



On a lighter side, this day is also referred to as "Singles Awareness Day."



The Legend



Legenda Aurea provides no connections whatsoever with sentimental love, appropriate lore has been embroidered in modern times to portray Valentine as a priest who refused an unattested law attributed to Roman Emperor Claudius II, allegedly ordering that young men remain single.

The Emperor supposedly did this to grow his army, believing that married men did not make for good soldiers. The priest Valentine, however, secretly performed marriage ceremonies for young men. When Claudius found out about this, he had Valentine arrested and thrown in jail. In an embellishment to The Golden Legend, on the evening before Valentine was to be executed, he wrote the first "valentine" himself, addressed to a young girl variously identified as his beloved, as the jailer's daughter whom he had befriended and healed,or both. It was a note that read "From your Valentine."



In another apparently modern embellishment, while Valentine was imprisoned, people would leave him little notes, folded up and hidden in cracks in the rocks around his cell. He would find them and offer prayers for them.

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