Valentine's Day

I found this information on another web site and is quite interesting. Valentine cards are a very old tradition unlike Christmas cards!

The Evolution of St. Valentine's Day
The popular customs associated with St. Valentine's Day had their origins in the middle ages. A similar practice to one of the Lupercalia traditions of putting girl's names in a box and letting the boys draw them out to pair them off for the Festival became popular in the fourteenth century. A sweetheart was chosen for the day by lot. This was done to correspond with the belief that the springtime mating of birds took place on Valentine's Day (halfway through the second month of the year). Chaucer's Parliament of Foules stated:
"For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne's day Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate." Messages sent (either said, sung or written verses and romantic greetings) between these randomly chosen pairs were a forerunner of the modern Valentine's Day card. The oldest 'valentine' in existence was made in the 15th century and is in the British Museum. In 1537, King Henry the Eighth declared that February 14th was "Saint Valentine's Day" by Royal Charter.

By the 18th century, the British were exchanging hand-crafted greeting cards; these grew in popularity and were given in place of valentine gifts. A rare Scottish example dates from 1784 and consists of hand-drawn hearts, flowers and geometric motifs set around a love poem. Around the same period the French were trimming oversized paper hearts with yards of real lace. Early valentines were homemade, fashioned by hand with colour paper, watercolours and coloured inks. In America, Valentine's Day did not become a tradition until around the Civil War in the mid 1860s.

In the 18th and 19th centuries there were a number of different styles of handmade valentines, including:
  • acrostic valentines - verses where the first letters on each line spelt out a beloved's name
  • cut-out valentines - made by folding the paper several times and cutting out a lace-like design
  • pinprick valentines - made by pricking tiny holes in a card with a pin or needle to create the look of lace
  • rebus valentines - verses in which tiny pictures take the place of some of the words (for example, an eye would take the place of the word "I")
  • puzzle purse valentines - a folded puzzle to read and refold. Among their many folds were verses that had to be read in a certain order
  • fraktur valentines - with ornamental lettering in the style of the mediaeval illuminated manuscripts
The production of valentine cards became commercial in the 19th century. Early manufactured valentines were black and white pictures, painted by factory workers. Expensive valentines were made with real lace and ribbons, paper lace was introduced later. By the start of the 20th century, card companies were mass-producing printed cards, and the Valentine's Day industry began to grow into the massive affair it is today.

The Origin of Saint Valentine
Most historians believe that Valentine's Day is derived from an Ancient Roman festival called Lupercalia that offered thanks to the Roman god Faunus. Faunus was the god of the fields, crops, herds, flocks and fertility. Each year Lupercalia was celebrated on the 15th of February, early Spring in the Roman calendar. The return of Spring and the renewal of life was celebrated with singing, dancing and other merriment.

By the 4th and 5th centuries, the early Christian Church had began to adapt or adopt Pagan festivals by linking them to religious figures or traditions. In 496 AD Pope Gelasius marked February 14th (the day before Lupercalia) as a celebration in honor of the martyrdom of Valentine, to try to stop the pagan festival. There is, however, some confusion as to who Valentine actually was.

It is believed that there were actually two Valentines. Little is known of one, the martyred Bishop of Interamna (modern Terni in central Italy). More is known about the second Valentine, a third century Christian priest, although there are a number of different stories surrounding him: Valentine secretly married Christian couples (under the rule of Emperor Claudius Christian marriages were banned and helping Christians considered a crime), he was imprisoned for refusing to worship pagan gods, and is said to have cured the jailer's daughter through prayer. Subsequently sending her a note signed "Your Valentine" on the day of his execution. Valentine, though not a Christian, helped Christians during a time of persecution. Captured and put in jail, he converted to Christianity and was executed. Whilst in prison he is said to have sent messages to friends saying "Remember your Valentine" and "I Love You". However, the different accounts do seem to agree on the date (14th February, 269AD) and the fairly thorough method adopted for his execution - clubbing, stoning and beheading outside the Flaminian Gate in Rome. There is further historical evidence that Valentine existed. Archaeologists have unearthed a Roman catacomb and an ancient church dedicated to Saint Valentine. For a period, the ancient Flaminian Gate, now the Porta del Popolo, was called the Gate of St. Valentine. According to popular belief, a third of St. Valentine's remains are stored in Terni, a third in Dublin and the final third in Glasgow. It is certainly the case that in the nineteenth century a wealthy French Catholic family possessed a number of holy relics, including the mortal remains of St. Valentine. As the family dwindled, one of the last survivors began to feel responsibility for the relics and spoke to Father Stephen Porton, Commissary of the Holy Land in France. Father Porton, having heard of the new Franciscan Church being built in Glasgow, persuaded Father Victor Cartuyvels, Provincial Minister of the Friars in Belgium, to give the relics a more permanent sanctuary. They first arrived in Glasgow in 1868, with all the requisite authentications, and remained at St. Francis's until the Franciscans moved to the Blessed Duns Scotus parish in the 1990s.