The Lucknow Sentinel, 1990-02-07, Page 11‘.2
lonelmow Sentinel, Wednesday, Febrasry 7, 1* --Page 11
A look at the history of Valentine s Day
•
With Valentine's Day fast aPPresching,
a look at •the history of Vila &kV when
people send greeting cards to
sweethearts, friends and members of
theer families seemed appropriate, The
following information is taken from the
World Book Encyclopedia,
Different authorities believe Valentine's
Day began in Various ways. Reference is
made to an ancient R01111811 festival with
fertility rites called Lupercalia. The
festival was apparently held on Febrtuuy •
15 in honour of Lupercus, a pastoral god
sometimes identified with Faunus, The
Romans believed this festival would en-
sure protection from wolves. During the
celebration young men struck people with
strips of animal hide and it is reported
that women took the blows because they
thought that the whipping made them
more fertile.
Valentine's Day is also associated with
saints of the early Christian Church. Ac-
cording to The Roman history of martyrs
two Saint Valentines were martyred on
February 14 by , being beheaded. One
Saint Valentine who died in Rome seems
to have been a priest who suffered death
during the persecution of Claudia -the
Goth about A.D. 260. • The •Roman
Emperor Claudius II had forbade young
men to marry, believing that single rnen•
made better soldiers. A priest ntimed
Valentine disobeyed and secretly married
young couples. In A.D. 350, a basilica
was built in his honor in Rome, and a
catacomb containing his remains was ap-
parently found on that location. '
Another Saint Valentine was a bishop
of Interamna, 60 miles from Rome. The
story goes that he was a Christian who
made friends with many children.
Romans imprisoned him because he
refused to worship their gods, and the
children missing Valentine threw loving
notes between the bars of his cell win-
dow. While there is no conclusive
evidence for dotdoting the existence ot
either man, the question has been 4'61(41
if perhaps they were the same man, and
by being remetubend both in Rome and
Internam, may have come to be con-
sidered as two persons.
Still others relate the Valentine's Day
custom to an English poet, Geoffrey
Chaucer, who mentioned that birds paired
off on February 14 choosing their mates.
. Early Cisterns
Valentine's Day may have been
celebrated by people in England as ear-
ly as the 1400's. Some historians trace the
custom of sending verses on this day to
a Frenchman named Charles, Duke of
Orleans, who Was captured by the
English during the Battle of Agincoutt in
1415, He sent his wife a rhymed love let-
ter from the tower of London, where he
was imprisoned.
Many customs involved ways a single
woman could learn who her future hus-
band would be. Englishwomen of the
.1700's wrote men's names on scraps of
PaPer, and dropped them all into water.
The first paper that rose to the surface
supposedly had the name of woman's
true love. '
' Another custom in the 1700's was that
of unmarried, women 'pinning five bay
leaves to their pillows on the eve of
Valentine's Day. One leaf was pinned to
each comer and one in the middle. If the
charm worked, they saw their future
husbands in their dreams.
• hi Derbyshire, England, young women
circled the church three or 12 times at
midnight and repeated:
sow hempseed.
Hemmed I sow.
He that Wes me best,
Come after me now. •
Their true loves then supposedly
appeared. •
According to the World Book,, one of
the oldest customs was the practice of
writing women's names on slips of paper
and drawing them from a jar. The name
drawn by the man becatne his valentine,
to whom he paid special attention.
Another description of Valentine's 'Day
during the 1700's was of groups of friends
meeting to draw names and for several
days, each man wore his valentine's
name on his sleeve. The saying "wearing
his heart on his sleeve"more than like-
ly came from this practice.
In the 1700s and 1000s irtany stores
sold handbooks called valentine writers,
which included verses to copy and
various suggestions about writing
valentines.
Conuaorciel Wed%
Conxnercial valentines date back to the
early INO's. Usually they were blank
with space for the sender to write his
own message. Over the years valentines
featured pictures. of children and gardens,
and were decorated with Bowers, lace,
leaves, satin, ribbon, lace trim, dried
flowers, feathers, imitation jewels,
mother -o( -pearl, sea 'shells or tassels.
Prices for, cards were as high as $10..
From the mid 1000's to the early 1900's,
many sent comic valentines called "pen-
ny dreadfuls". They sold for a .penny and
featured such insulting verses as:
'Tis all in vain your simpering looks,
You never can incline,
With all your bustles, stays and curls,
To find a valentine.
Cupid, a wing= was the god of
love in Roman mythology. Ancient
Greeks and ROO*11$ descibod him as
having both a cruel and happy nature.
His malty was shown in the treatment
of his wife, a beautiful princess, known
as Psyche. Ile apparently forbade ber to
ever see what he looked like and would
only be with her at night in the dark.
Curiosity got the better of her, and one
night while he slept she lit a lamp so she
could leek at his face He awoke and fled
in anger.
The happy side of hhn is related to lea
being a handsome lad, who united lovers
whenever he could.
The mulled image of him was a hand-
some, athletic man, but by the mid 300's
B.C. lea image was one of a chubby, nak-
ed infant with wings, holding a bow and
arrow. U one was shot with his arrow,
you usually fell in love,
(Information taken from the World Book
EncycloPedia) .
MRS. OVERDRESS
Your poor old husband slaves all day
To dress you in this silly way
But, worse and worse, each year, you
get,
While he gets deeper into debt.
•
suisi6m. BORE
You silly, soft and yelling fool, BY day
and. night eon bray; \
Wake all the babies on the block,
And those across the way
Go put your mutton -head 031 lee
Mid stop your foolish bray;
With such a voice for crying "clams"
You'll get work any' day.
Hallmark Historical Collection;
Hallmark Cards ' •
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