Something a little different but topical nonetheless!

Before there was a Saint Valentine to warm the heart and inject passion into the season, mid-February was a lusty occasion for lovers.
As early as 400 years BC, Roman citizens took part in a popular yearly lottery in honor of their god of shepherds, Lupercus.

Teenage women had their names written down and put inside a box and then picked by chance alone by eager young men. The couples thus selected were legally paired for the rest of the year.

In the third century AD, the militaristic emperor Claudius II prohibited young males from getting married — he believed that unmarried men made better soldiers.

It is believed that a Christian bishop, Valentine, didn’t agree with Claudius and secretly performed marriage ceremonies until Claudius discovered his disloyalty and locked him up, and finally had him brutally executed on February 24th, 270.

According to legend, while he was incarcerated, Valentine fell madly in love with his guard’s daughter and when he was finally taken to be killed, he wrote her a message which he ended with, ‘From your Valentine.’

Using the name of the martyred priest as an excuse, the Church, in AD 496, took the opportunity to put an end to the pagan ancient lottery held to worship the god Lupercus and so changed the rules:

After that, both the young men and the young women would select a name in the lottery, but instead of getting a year of companionship (or, indeed, the more earthy benefits that were implied), they now had to pick out a Saint whose life they were expected to spend the next year emulating.

Must have been quite a disappointment for the hot-bloodied young Romans!

This new ‘celebration’ day was called in honor of Saint Valentine whose choice, 226 years after his execution, was aimed at ridding Christian Rome of the pagan god than to signify love.

As so often happens, ingrained public loyalty to old ideas was harder to beat down than new
political ideology — particularly when unpopular and Saint Valentine’s name remained linked with love and lovers.

The young Roman males, missing their traditional sweepstake, took instead to passing notes to the women they hoped to gain favor with on February 14th.

Thus the tradition of sending Valentine cards was was introduced more than one-and-a-half millennia ago!

The  first known ‘modern’ card that is still in existence is in the collection of the British Museum.

This first proper Valentines card was sent by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife in 1415. He was held captive in the Tower of London at the time and so his feelings of love were probably quite heightened!

Five hundred years ago the Bishop of Geneva wanted to restart the annual ‘emulate a saint’ lottery, but the people were not much interested.

February 14th was by then too firmly associated with lovers for the Church to successfully interfere.

In 1797 a British publisher, a man who would have done well in modern times, published a guidebook called ‘The Young Man’s Valentine Writer’ which offered scores of pre-written love poems for the creatively challenged.

The practice of sending cards anonymously all started with the Victorians. Those outwardly straight-laced folks privately adored anything sensual and passionate, but outwardly had to display an aura of respectful purity. Hence, the verses in their cards became more and more obscene, but the authors remained hidden behind a respectful
anonymity.

The first seller of Valentine’s cards in the U.S., Esther Holland set a price of up to $35 for a single card.

An enormous amount of money way back in 1870!

As a matter of interest kisses are written as ‘x’ because in the days before people could generally read and write, it was legally acceptable for a person to draw a cross as their signature.

To convey the effect of an oath, people would kiss the cross they had drawn — much the same as they would kiss the Bible.
Unsurprisingly the x and the kiss became one and the same.

May you have a romantic Valentine’s day! X