Christmas is a distant memory, dry January done & dusted and, if you happen to have school age children, it may be dawning on you that the half term holiday is here again (“what??!!! They only went back to school 5 minutes ago…….”).
It’s February and that can only mean one thing; Valentine’s Day!! That day in the year so anticipated & dreaded in equal measure. From gloating schoolfriends to smug singletons in the office (and lets not forget that particularly annoying colleague with the husband who always sends a dozen red roses. To work!) it’s never nice to be the one who doesn’t receive anything.
But what exactly is Valentine’s Day all about? Why do we place so much importance on letting someone know that we love them, but not saying who we are? Is it still romantic to have a secret admirer? What if we end up disappointed if/when we discover their identity? And for married couples isn’t it better to say “I love you” every day?
So I did some research!
It appears that Valentine may have been a priest who served during the third century in Rome and upset Emperor Claudius II Gothicus so much that he was executed. Considering that his nickname was “Claudius the Cruel” he probably wasn’t that hard to upset! Allegedly Claudius outlawed marriage for young men on the basis that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families. Valentine defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages in secret. Another version of the story suggests that Valentine may have been killed for helping Christians to escape from harsh Roman prisons. According to one legend, Valentine himself actually sent the first “Valentine” greeting after falling in love with his jailor’s daughter. Before his execution it is alleged that he wrote her a letter signed “From your Valentine,” which of course is the expression still in use today. We’ll never know the truth behind the legends, but the stories all concentrate on the classic appeal of a heroic and romantic figure. By the Middle Ages St Valentine had become one of the most popular saints in England and France.
Some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death, others that the Christian church placed St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to “Christianize” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated at the ides of February (February 15th) Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. Now, I’m not going to write up a description of Lupercalia for you here as quite frankly the sacrificial bits made me feel queasy, but it’s all there online should you feel the need for more info. Suffice to say that the day ended with all the young women placing their names in a big urn. The bachelors would then each choose a name and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. Apparently these matches often ended in marriage! I’m guessing some of them didn’t work out so well…
Lupercalia was eventually outlawed at the end of the 5th century, when Pope Gelasius declared February 14 to be St. Valentine’s Day. But it wasn’t until the middle ages that the day became associated with love. February 14 was believed to be the beginning of bird mating season, obviously cementing the idea that Valentine’s Day should be a day for romance!
Written Valentine greetings started to appear after 1400. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife whilst he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following capture at the Battle of Agincourt. The poem is now part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London.
In Great Britain, Valentine’s Day began to be widely celebrated around the 17th century and by the middle of the 18th it was expected that lovers would exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. By 1900 printing technology improvements meant that printed cards were replacing written letters. In a time when directly expressing one’s feelings was discouraged, ready-made cards were an easy way around the issue.
Being a wedding photographer in Cornwall is fun at any time of year. I’m not sure we’ve ever photographed a Valentine’s Day wedding, but watching the emotion on a brides face when she opens a gift or card from her husband-to-be on the morning of the wedding is always one of my favourite parts of the day. So my wise advice would be not to save everything for Valentine’s Day. Take time to say “I love you” every day ????
St. Valentine’s facts that you may not know:
Although the Roman Catholic Church continues to recognize St. Valentine as a saint of the church, he was removed from the General Roman Calendar in 1969 because of the lack of reliable information about him.
St. Valentine is the patron saint of lovers, epileptics, and beekeepers!