Today, we celebrate a worldwide event observed annually by everyone, Valentine’s Day.
Valentine’s Day originated in a Western Christian feast day honoring one or two early saints named Valentinus. This day is also called Saint Valentine’s Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, recognized as a significant cultural, religious, and commercial celebration of romance and romantic love in many parts of the world.
This day is when you chocolates and flowers go flying off the shelves, as well as greeting cards. They all go together to show our love and that we always care and never forget all the people and families we love. The rise of Internet popularity at the turn of the millennium is creating new traditions. Millions of people use, every year, digital means of creating and sending Valentine’s Day greeting messages such as e-cards, love coupons or printable greeting cards. An estimated 15 million e-valentines were sent in 2010. Valentine’s Day is considered by some to be a Hallmark holiday due to its commercialization.
But we can always give physical gifts to all the people we love and most certainly will be appreciated because it can bring nostalgic memories and smiles when keeping them as keepsakes, to look back in the future.
So, today, celebrate this day by giving your special someone, your parents, your teacher, and friends a gift that they will cherries forever. Whether your single or not, you can still celebrate Valentine’s with your parents by bringing them to an elegant dinner showing them Valentine’s is not just for lovers but for everyone, especially your parents. Share on social media how you celebrate this day using #ValentinesDay.
Who Was the Real St. Valentine? The Many Myths Behind the Inspiration for Valentine’s Day
On February 14, when we share chocolates, special dinners, or doily cards with our loved ones, we do it in the name of Saint Valentine. But who was this saint of romance?
Search the internet, and you can find plenty of stories about him—or them. One Saint Valentine was supposedly a Roman priest who performed secret weddings against the wishes of the authorities in the third century. Imprisoned in the home of a noble, he healed his captor’s blind daughter, causing the whole household to convert to Christianity and sealing his fate. Before being tortured and decapitated on February 14, he sent the girl a note signed “Your Valentine.”
Some accounts say another saint named Valentine during the same period was the Bishop of Terni, also credited with secret weddings and martyrdom via beheading on February 14.
Unfortunately for anyone hoping for a tidy, romantic backstory to the holiday, scholars who have studied its origins say there’s very little basis for these accounts. In fact, Valentine’s Day only became associated with love in the late Middle Ages, thanks to the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer.
(excerpted from https://www.history.com/news/real-st-valentine-medieval)
