We all tend to think of Valentine’s Day as a day for lovers. It is the day when we send chocolates and flowers to those we love and let them know how much they mean to us. But the 14th of February wasn’t always called Valentine’s Day and it certainly was not always a day of romance. Valentine’s Day has gone through several changes over the century and a half that it has been recognized. It has been transformed from a day of religious atonement to a day of mocking those who are alone until today it is seen by many as one of frivolous celebration. Valentine’s Day has gone through quite the changes in our culture.
It Begins with Two
Although most people are aware of St. Valentine, did you know there were actually two people named Valentine who became saints? It is even said that they were both martyred on Feb. 14th and both named Valentine. The most well known was a bishop in Roman times. At the time Rome was in need of more soldiers to fight their battles and so the emperor decided to outlaw marriage. His reasoning was that married soldiers didn’t fight as valiantly because they wanted to survive in order to return home. But Bishop Valentine decided that marriage was a sacred duty and continued to perform marriages. For this crime he was executed. This video below tells the story in a charming way for anyone who is not familiar with it:
Modern Romance and Valentine’s Day
But this doesn’t mean that today’s version of Valentine’s Day began back in Roman days. For hundreds of years, until around 1500, February 14th was simply a day of religious recognition of the sacrifices that St. Valentine made. Many credit Chaucer with having made the connection between romance and St. Valentine’s Day. He wrote in his famous “Parliament of Fowles” that February 14th is the day that birds begin to look for their mates. Another old influence was that February 14th is also the old roman fertility celebration of Lupercalia, a day when men would choose women to be their mates in a day long ritual of wooing. It is around the 1500s that Europeans began their love affair with all things from the ancient world of the Romans and Greeks.
They could easily have combined Chaucer’s poem with the old Roman holiday to give St. Valentine’s Day a whole new meaning. By the 1700s it became a common ritual on Valentine’s Day to have the single men draw lots from a container that held the names of single women. The women would then cook a meal for the man and they would attend a dance together. The idea was to find your own true love through this and many did. Some small towns in the US continue this when they use picnic auctions to raise money. So the old time romance ideas are still quite alive in many parts of the country today.
An American Valentine’s Day
Of course, here in America the ritual of sending your own true love a valentine wasn’t always the sweet practice we know and love today. Throughout the 1800s it was still very common to send mean verses to ugly, single women to mock them on St. Valentine’s Day. It was considered hilarious to send out these mocking verses and they were just as common as the “penny valentines” that were decorated with lace and covered in pink hearts that lovers sent to each other on Valentine’s Day. The truth is, between the two types of valentines sent out on February 14th, the biggest complaint was how it overwhelmed the poor mail carriers on this day!
While today we think of this day as a “Hallmark holiday” it is still quite suitable to put together your own Valentine’s Day card for the one you love. With the rise of the handmade revolution, making your own card complete with a romantic verse and lace doily could be quite romantic. You may even want to create a romantic card that holds a little treasure such as a heart shaped pin like the one you see above. Giving your heart away to the one you love was never easier then today – when you make a sweet card and add a little memento of your love to it.
What is your favorite gift on Valentine’s Day? If you are still looking for the perfect Valentine’s Day gift, why not cruise through our catalog of fine gold and silver handmade jewelry today?
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