Some notes on Valentine's Day

It's a traditional day for lovers to exchange cards, gifts and flowers. But nobody is really sure how the custom of St Valentine's Day came about.



There are about three St Valentines recognised by the Catholic church, but the one most associated with the love festival was a priest who lived in Rome in the time Emperor Claudius II.

The most popular theory is that Claudius banned marriages and engagements in Rome because he was finding it difficult to recruit soldiers as young men didn't want to leave their wives and girlfriends.

Valentine didn't agree with this, and continued to perform marriages in secret. When Claudius discovered this, he had Valentine arrested, beaten and then beheaded, in about 270.

That would probably have been enough to get him linked with lovers, but there's another story too, an extension of that first one.

It goes that while Valentine was languishing in jail, awaiting his execution, he was befriended by the daughter of his jailer.

Before he was executed, he sent her a last letter, signed 'from your Valentine'. It might well have been the first 'Valentine' card, so to speak. But commercial cards took a long time to arrive on the scene ... the first ones were produced in the 1800s.



The date of February 14 was selected by Pope Gelasius as St Valentine's Day in 496. Earlier it had been the eve of the Feast of Lupercalia in ancient Rome, when young boys and girls were 'paired' by having their names drawn from jars.

They would remain as partners for the duration of the festival, and in some cases longer, even occasionally resulting in marriage.



(The flowers and gifts pictured in this piece are on sale in Dave Clancy's shop on Hillside.)