Happy Valentine’s Day!
The Feast Day of St. Valentine was originally a day that the early Christian Church observed the martyrdom of several men who happened to be named Valentinus. There was no specific Valentine of old. It had no romantic connotation then, either.
The first sign of romance being associated with Valentine’s Day was in the middle ages in Europe. Geoffrey Chaucer’s Parlement of Foules (1382) is where all this heart shaped business began.
Handwritten notes or “valentines” became common in the 19th century. It is only in the past 100 years that we have seen the holiday turned into a commercial free-for-all.
Personally, I neither condone nor condemn Valentine’s Day. I look at it as any other day (and, as an excuse to dress my daughter in red, and, perhaps, to give Holly a heart shaped box of chocolate).
I like it when kids call the day “Valentimes.”
Happy Valentimes.
