Just some more candy

Every year when Valentine’s Day comes around, in my head I hear, “it’s just another holiday gimmick for the chocolate companies to make more money.” No, that voice is not mine. I believe it is a myriad of memories of others saying it to me or around me, maybe even some from me muttering it when working retail, stocking the shelves. Wherever it is coming from, I wish it would stop.

There has to be a reason as to why we are to celebrate this day in the first place. So, here I go to delve into the history of where and when Valentine’s Day began. Join me on what turns out to be a bit of an eye opener.

In my research of this lovey-dovey holiday, I realized that no one quite knows the exact origin. There have been many Valentine’s (Valentyne) back through the ages, however, there has been a common overlap of a particular Emperor Claudius II. He comes into the picture right away in ancient Rome. It is said that he executed two men, both named Valentine, on the same day in two different years on February 14 in the third century.

One Valentine, legend has it that he was a priest during the third century and he would marry young lovers in secret, even though Emperor Claudius II deemed that single men made better soldiers. When Valentine was caught, Emperor Claudius II ordered his execution. During his imprisonment he fell in love with the jailer’s daughter. It is stated that Valentine healed her blindness through praying with her. On February 14, the day he was to be executed, he wrote a letter to her and signed it, “from your Valentine.”

The other Valentine, a bishop and was known as Saint Valentine of Terni. It was said that he was beheaded for the attempt to aid Christians escape the harsh Roman prisons.

Both Valentine’s had been martyred for their actions in the Christian faith. In centuries later, Chaucer and Shakespeare romanticized Valentine’s Day in their works, which gained popularity. Handmade cards were written to each other and in the 1840’s, Esther A. Howland, became known as the “Mother of the Valentine,” as she was the first to mass-produce Valentine’s Day gifts embroidered with real lace, ribbons and pictures known as “scrap.”

Since now you know a little more of the “origin(s)” of Valentine’s Day, maybe you won’t be thinking that it is just another gimmick to buy more chocolates. Maybe you can think of the Valentine’s that have come before and remember what they did out of love for others.

Seeking

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