Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day

Esther Howland Valentine, circa 1850:

Weddings now are all the go,
Will you marry me or no?

Will the real Valentine step forward please…

It’s February 14^th on Tuesday, need we say it – Valentine’s Day – that special day when mystery cards are sent in the name of a secret admirer, and flowers, gifts, chocolates and attention are lavished on the one we love. But why? Just who was St. Valentine, and why is he associated with February as a month of romance?

There is a legend that, in third century Rome, Valentine was a priest who continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret when Emperor Claudius II outlawed marriage for young men, having decided that single men made better soldiers than married ones. Valentine's actions were discovered and Claudius ordered that he be put to death.

Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, and according to another legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first Valentine greeting after falling in love with his gaoler's daughter who visited him in prison. It is alleged that he wrote her a letter signed "From your Valentine”, an expression familiar to us all.

We may never manage to separate truth from fiction, but the “legends” all emphasize the appeal of a sympathetic, heroic and romantic figure.

Avoiding legends - in the calendar of Ancient Athens, February was the month of Gamelion, dedicated to the sacred marriage of Zeus and Hera; in Ancient Rome, Lupercalia ( Feb 13 to 15) was an archaic rite, local to the city of Rome, and connected to fertility; the more general Festival of Juno Februa (meaning Juno the Pure) was celebrated on Feb 13 to 14. Although in all these cases, the name of Valentine is remarkably absent.

Some Valentine facts:

In 1382, Geoffrey Chaucer made the connection between romance and Valentine’s Day in Parlement of Foules (written to honour the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia):

                For this was on seynt Valentynes day,
                Whan every foul cometh ther to chese his make
                     [“For this was on Saint Valentine's Day,
              when every bird cometh there to choose his mate”].

In Paris, on Valentine’s Day in 1400, a High Court of Love was established, dealing with love contracts, betrayals, and violence against women. Judges were selected by women on the basis of a poetry reading!

The earliest surviving Valentine is a 15th-century rondeau written by Charles, Duke of Orléans, to his wife while he was being held in the Tower of London after Agincourt (1415).

John Donne used the legend of the marriage of the birds on Valentine’s Day as the starting point for his Epithalamion (possibly 1590’s)-

                Hayle Bishop Valentine whose day this is
                All the Ayre is thy Diocese
                And all the chirping Queristers
                And other birds ar thy parishioners
                Thou marryest every yeare…

written in celebration of the marriage of Elizabeth, daughter of James I of England, and Frederick V, Elector Palatine.

The modern cliché Valentine's Day poem can be found in the collection of English nursery rhymes Gammer Gurton's Garland (1784):

                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.

In 1797, a British publisher issued The Young Man's Valentine Writer, containing scores of sentimental verses for the use of the young lover unable to compose his own. Printers were already producing cards with verses and sketches (mechanical valentines), and over the following century postal rates fell to such an extent that the sending of Valentines became much cheaper and easier (albeit less personal). This inevitably played a part in the sending of anonymous Valentines, and the onset of more “racy” verses!

In the 19^th century, paper Valentines became so popular in that they were produced in factories, often made with real lace and ribbons, paper lace being introduced in the mid-19th century. A writer, in Graham's American Monthly, observed in 1849 that “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. She took her inspiration from an English Valentine she had received from a business associate of her father, and began importing paper lace and floral decorations from England to produce her own Valentine card creations.

Whether presents ever accompanied the early Valentines we can only surmise, but certainly, in the 20^th century various industries promoted their wares as perfect Valentine gifts. Florists, chocolate makers, lingerie manufacturers and the jewellery industry have all cashed in on the Valentine “trade”. In the UK alone, just under half of the population spend money on their Valentines and around 1.3 billion pounds are spent each year on cards, flowers, chocolates and other gifts, with an estimated 25 million cards being sent.

In the US, of course, the whole Valentine experience is massive. Though it is not a Public Holiday, it is “celebrated” with decorations, parties and dressing-up, and, of course, the giving of elaborate gifts often in red satin-lined heart-shaped boxes. The Greeting Card Association in the US estimate that 190 million cards are sent each year, half of which go to non-spouse family members, usually children.

Finally, today, the rise in popularity of e-messaging has meant the creation of new traditions. In general, millions of people now send e-cards, love coupons or printable greetings cards, and in 2010, an estimated 15 million e-valentines criss-crossed the ether.

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