Love Is In The Air....

"Today is a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap."   [Joel, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind]

Cue soppiness, satin-covered heart-shaped boxes of chocolates, teddy bears and red roses selling at £10 a stem....it’s the day that keeps card makers, florists and chocolatiers in business for another year. But how did Valentine’s Day come about and is it just another excuse for commercial profiteering?

The early origins of Valentine's Day can be traced back to the ancient Roman celebration of Lupercalia, which was held on February 13th through February 15th to avert evil spirits and purify the city, releasing health and fertility. Lupercalia honoured Lupercus (god of shepherds) and Faunus (the Roman equivalent of the Greek god Pan) and the founders of Rome. When the Catholic Church set out to change the old Pagan feast days into religious feast days, they made the pastoral festival into the feast day of Saint Valentine....but just who was Saint Valentine? Considered the Patron Saint of (in no particular order) engaged couples, bee keepers, people suffering from epilepsy, fainting, greetings, happy marriage, love, lovers, plague, travellers and youth, there are at least three different stories surrounding his identity.

One legend tells of a third century Roman priest who went against the anti-marriage laws of Emperor Claudius II. Claudius believed that unmarried men made better soldiers then men with wives and families, so he made it illegal for young men to marry. It was said that Valentine secretly married couples, and when Claudius discovered his betrayal, he had Valentine executed. Another story tells of a priest who was executed helping Christian prisoners escape harsh treatment and torture in the Roman prisons. A third Saint Valentine was a martyred minister who practiced in the province of Africa, but there is very little known about him and few scholars believe that he is actually associated with the Valentine's Day holiday.

But why did a saint's feast day become a day for lovers? Perhaps it had something to do with an old English custom of the fourteenth century. On February 14th, the unmarried people in a village would each draw the name of another unmarried person, and the two would then exchange notes. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week, which has led to the modern day expression “to wear your heart on your sleeve”, meaning that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.

Charles, the Duke of Orleans in France, was said to be the first person to send a love note on St. Valentine's Day. In 1415, he sent a letter to his wife from an English prison. Sending valentine cards first became fashionable in Great Britain in the 19th century, and in 1847, a Massachusetts woman named Esther Howland created and sold the first mass-produced valentines in the United States. Her embossed paper lace valentines inspired so much popularity that today, nearly one billion valentine cards are sent in the US each year, making Valentine’s Day the largest seasonal card-sending occasion of the year, next to Christmas. Cupid, a symbol of Valentine's Day, became associated with it because he was the son of Venus, the Roman god of love and beauty. Cupid often appears on Valentine's cards holding a bow and arrows because he is believed to use magical arrows to inspire feelings of love.

Valentine's Day does seem to be a holiday of expectations..... culturally we feel obligated to be part of a couple on this day, a time to be in love and to be loved, so it is a hard day for people who are in between relationships, in bad relationships, or who may have a partner but only in memory. Perhaps Valentine Day should be more of a time remembering all the people in our lives whom we love. B totally has my heart, but there are many kinds of love...the love of parents, siblings, good friends. One of my all time favourite films, 'Love Actually', I think is a wonderful homage to love in all of its forms, not just romantic.