Saint Valentine's Day
February, the month of candy, flowers, and gifts – exchanged between loved ones – on the eve of St. Valentine’s Day. St. Valentine’s Day is celebrated on February 14 every year across the world by the exchange of romantic or comic verse messages, used in the name of St. Valentine. All such messages have a special term for them, called “Valentines”.
Who was Saint Valentine
Saint Valentine, as the name suggests, was a real saint for all the affianced couples, beekeepers, engaged couples, epilepsy, fainting, greetings, happy marriages, love, lovers, plague, travelers, young people. He is represented in pictures with birds and roses.
He was a kind-hearted holy priest in Rome during the third century. He married many young couples against the wishes of Emperor Claudius II, the ruler of Rome at that time.
This started long time back when Claudius wanted to have a big army and so, he wanted men to join voluntarily. But many men, with the fear of losing their wives and families, refused to join him. As a result, Claudius got infuriated. This time he carried a more weird idea with him of simply stopping all future marriages to occur. Yes! He ridiculed the concept of marriages and decided to stop all marriages from their future occurrence.
Young people regarded this law as wicked, and vindictive at the same time. So, was for Valentine. He decided not to support Claudius in his decision and went ahead with resuming one of his favorite activities that is, marrying off young people. But this was all done in a secret, but still in a very graceful manner. The couples were married in a small candle lit room, with only three people inside – the bride, the groom, and Valentine himself. Unfortunately, Valentine got caught one day, while performing a marriage ceremony, and he was then put behind bars. His punishment was not less than his death. But this did not made him upset, and he readily agreed to the Emperor Claudius II cruel decision. Many young people were also frequent in visiting Valentine to the jail. They used to throw some flowers with notes carrying special messages only for him at his window, conveying a sweet message that Valentine is not alone and they will also stand by Him in the worship of Love. One of these young couples was none other than the daughter of the prison guard himself. She used to visit Valentine in the jail, and would sit for long hours and both of them used to have a sweet conversation. She also provided him with her complete support and agreeableness towards his belief in love. On the day Valentine was to be hanged, that is February 14, 269 A.D. he left a piece of note with special thanks for her friendship and loyalty towards him. This night was a night before a festival called Lupercalia.
The note carried the following signatures at the bottom:
“Love from your Valentine”
This note started the tradition of exchanging love messages on 14 February every year.
The Origin of saint valentine
The origin of St. Valentine is still unknown. Some people still hold a belief that Valentine was a man from Rome who was martyred for refusing to give up his Christian faith.
Some of them say was a temple priest jailed for defiance during the supremacy of Claudius the Goth (Claudius II). In spite of there being a mystery about its existence, Valentine is still believed to have lived. Some archaeologists have discovered a Roman catacomb and an ancient church, which has been especially dedicated to Saint Valentine.
Some legends think there exist a gentleman named ‘Cupid’, whom they have given a benefit of doubt; Cupid is a Latin word, meaning ‘desire’. Cupid is the son of Venus, the goddess of love, in Roman mythology. In Greek Mythology, it is Eros, the god of love – his counterpart. Cupid is considered a very naughty boy, who impishly throws arrows on both gods and humans, wounding them and thereby making them gradually fall in love with each other.
But, according to Catholic Encyclopedia, there are at least three different Saint Valentines, and all of them were martyrs. This is mentioned clearly in the early martyrologies under date of 14 February.
It is believed that two of these saints were from the third century AD. One of them was the bishop of Interamma, which is now Terni in Italy, and the other saint was said to be a priest of Rome. Some people hold a doubt that both of these saints are the same man, since both of them were offended for the same deed, their beliefs. The Roman priest was beaten and then beheaded on the 14th of February as per the orders given by the Emperor Claudius II in 269 A.D. The bishop of Interamma was buried on the Via Flaminia, in a different location than that of the priest.
In the honor of the martyrdom of Saint Valentine, Pope Gelasius has marked February 14 as a celebration day in 496 AD. In today’s modern world, this day is celebrated as a special day where lovers exchange gifts, ideas, cards, love messages, and so on, in order to signify their true feelings towards each other. The words quoted by St. Valentine “Love from your Valentine”, are still used on love cards, the young people exchange on this day.
Saint Valentine's Day
Valentine’s Day is celebrated every year on February 14. It is also referred to as St. Valentine’s Day.
On this day, lovers all over the world express their feelings towards their love in a special way by sending cards, poems, songs, messages, and gifts.
Celebrating Valentine's day in the usa
Valentine’s Day was originally started in England, as believed by many, and then it went on to North America, through British immigrants in the 19th century. In the United States,
In the year 1850, Esther Howland from Worcester Massachusetts, who was considered the Mother of the American Valentine, sold off valentine cards produced on a massive scale with paper lace embossed on the cards. She completely changed the meaning of love amongst the Americans, and was also honored with the award of Esther Howland Award from the Greeting Card Association.
Thus, the practice of exchanging cards later became popular and was expanded to the exchange of gifts in the second half of the 20th century. Such gifts were in the form of chocolates, roses, soft toys, greetings, etc.
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