The Origins Of Valentines Day

The Origins Of Valentines Day

Every year February 14th is celebrated as a day for love, exchange of gifts, promises of eternal passion, and more. The inspired pen poems inspired by their love and admiration for the women of their dreams while others just go to shops and buy commercially available verses.

Valentines means candy, chocolates, perfume, red hearts, balloons, and more. Have you ever wondered when the celebration first originated? Well in ancient Rome, February heralded the coming to spring a time for rejuvenation, fertility, and growth.

In ancient times, Romans celebrated in February a festival to honor the god of fertility who provided them with progeny and ensured a god crop. In Rome February 15th was celebrated as the feast of Lupercalla and Feb 14th as a holiday in honor of Juno the queen of Roman gods and goddesses. On the eve of Lupercalla a glass jar was filled to the brim with chits on which were penned the names of all eligible girls. Then young men would draw a chit each from the jar and the girl whose name was on the chit would be his partner for the celebration. This was a method by which ancient Romans introduced eligible boys and girls to one another.

Much later in the 3rd century BCE when Emperor Claudius II ruled Rome there lived a priest called Valentine. And when Claudius passed a decree that young men in his empire were not to marry, Valentine defied him and used to consecrate marriages secretly. He was sentenced to death and thrown into prison. While awaiting his execution Valentine penned a letter to his love and signed it “from your Valentine.” After his death Valentine became a martyr and saint and was popularly known as St Valentine.

Wonderful legends are woven around Valentine’s Day. In Wales young people exchanged as gifts wooden spoons which were hand carved with decorations of hearts and key holes. The decorations conveyed “you hold the key to my heart or you unlock my heart.” In other places women were given gifts of clothes and if they accepted the gift then it conveyed that they were wiling to marry the man who has sent the gift.

In 1415, Charles, the Duke of Orleans is known to have penned, from his prison in the tower of London , what were known as “poetical amorous addresses” to his wife in France, he is believed to be one of the earliest creators of valentines.

Just as companies like Hallmark sell cards for Valentines Day in the 15th century people bought little booklets with verse in them ---they then made their own valentines using the verse to express their thoughts. For example a valentine could have the hand drawn illustration of a knight and his lady with Cupid the god of love shooting arrows into the knight’s heart.
In the US it was after 1723, that popularity of the celebration grew. People imported the “booklets of verse” all the way from England and copied the verses on to gilt edged papers. Then a Ms. Ester Howard in around 1830 decided to be original and create American Valentines that were marketed as Worcester Valentines.

Since then with changing centuries and tastes the celebration has taken on new hues with young men and women, children, as well as older couples creating newer ways to celebrate and declare their undying love.

BONUS : The Perfect Date

Ask a woman what the perfect date is and the answer will probably run along the lines of a nice evening out with a leisurely dinner and good conversation. Maybe followed by a nice moonlit walk hand in hand with her handsome man. Stopping for a drink or desert and more conversation/flirting. In other words a slow romantic build up that may or may not lead to something more intimate.

Ask a guy that same question and the answer is pretty obvious, particularly when he's talking to his friends. Did he get to do the horizontal tango.

Which just goes to show that a man and a woman at the same place and time sharing the same experience are thinking two different things.

So then the question becomes does the perfect date exist exist? Probably only in our minds as we map out how we would like it to go, but reality has a way of screwing with even the best laid plans.

But that doesn't mean we can't try to have the perfect date. And it doesn't have to be a one time thing because lets face it, the whole purpose of a first date (unless things go horribly wrong) is to have a second date and many after that. And while not every date will be perfect or as good as the one before it, with a little planning and advice there's no reason we can't shoot for that high a standard every time.

There are a whole lot of guides to dating and dating ideas out there. And that's a good thing, particularly for men. Because you men know how hard it is to come up with original ideas, and that in and of itself is what makes a perfect date. ORIGINAL IDEAS! You have to change it up, you can't be doing the same thing, going to the same place every time. That's not a date, that's repetition. And nothing sets off the boring meter better than repetition.

One other thing to remember is you don't have to use any dating ideas word for word. In other words, don't try to copy exactly what the date guru has put forth. Take that idea and give it your own personal twist. What that is is up to you, but your date wants you to be you. So get your date ideas, even if they aren't yours originally adding your own personality to the idea will make it yours and that makes it as close to perfect as you can get.