The View From Here

ove is in the air!  Valentine’s Day strikes again!  Since today is the day of love I figured I would do a little research about the day.  I would assume that most everyone know that we are celebrating the death of a Saint named Valentine.  That is completely true but what you probably don’t know is that the Catholic church (which started celebrating these Saint days) celebrated the deaths (they are really martyrs) of eleven Saint Valentines throughout the year up until 1969.  The Valentine’s Day we celebrate today is the day the Catholic church recognized two of the eleven (Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni).  The attachment of romantic love with the day didn’t come until the time when courtly love was idealized.  The first written statement linking love and the day came from Geoffery Chaucer in 1382 in Parlement of Foules and read as follows:

For this was on Seynt Volantynys day

Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese [choose] his make [mate].

The commercialization of Valentines Day started in the 1840s when the “valentines” cards were sold in a book and stationary store in Massachusetts.  As time went on men began to have to top what other men were giving the types and varieties of gifts given expanded to flowers and candy.  (I am not sure if that is true or not, but it does make sense)  Since we live in a world driven by money, companies will take any opportunity they can to make money, especially holidays.  Giving jewelry is associated with Valentines Day (even though we can’t all afford it) but this wasn’t the case until the 1980s when diamond companies began advertising the day as an opportunity to give it.

So, there you go.  That is a brief summary of how we came to celebrate this day.  I like history.

Brian