Valentine's Day is actually the celebration of St. Valentine. The problem here is that nobody is in any real agreement as to which St. Valentine is to be celebrated. Two men come to the front: Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni. Both of these men were martyred, but even the reason for their deaths are uncertain. Because there was no romantic sentimentalism associated with either of their death others have embellished the stories to add this flavor. For example, it is said that the Roman Emperor Claudius II tried to convert Valentine to paganism but couldn’t because Valentine was trying to convert the emperor to Christianity. As a result the Roman emperor had him killed, but just before his death Valentine miraculously healed the blind daughter of his Roman jailer. The legend goes on to say that as he was about to be executed he wrote a note to this girl, with whom he had fallen in love, and signed it “From Your Valentine.”

Valentine’s Day as a card-exchanging, candy-gobbling, romantic dinner-eating holiday began with Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14^th Century when he wrote about mating birds. (What? Exactly!) But the day didn’t really catch on until the Victorian Period in the late 1700’s. This was a particularly prudish time when young men couldn’t, and wouldn’t, express themselves romantically. Along comes a British publisher who wrote The Young Man’s Valentine Writer in which a young man in love could find an appropriate verse to express his feelings. Coinciding with this was a cut in postal rates that made sending cards financially feasible. There you have it!

Obviously the U.S. Greeting Card Association has capitalized on this “holiday” to make it the second largest card-sending day (only behind Christmas). It is estimated that 190 million Valentines cards are sent each year in the U.S., and when you include Valentines exchanged in American classrooms it snowballs to 1 billion Valentines given each year – just in the U.S.!

From ancient folklore to modern practice we celebrate this day as a day of “love.” For me it doesn’t matter where this day originated, it is just another good excuse to tell the one I’ve chosen to give all my romantic love to that I love her desperately. It is one day in the year that I can set aside to let Barb know that without her my life would be incomplete and miserable. February 14^th is that yearly reminder that at heart I am a romantic and that I absolutely love being in love with this woman whose made my life enjoyable.

Grace & Peace,

Scott