What’s behind ‘Be my Valentine’?
Ever wondered why you used to, as a school child, send and receive anonymous Valentine's Day cards?
IT is that time of year again when lovers the world over shower their ‘significant others’ in romantic gifts, spoiling them with novelty candy, blood-red roses or candlelit dinners.
A national holiday in some countries, Valentine’s Day has become synonymous with love. But why do we choose this day to express our undying love for each other?
There are many stories surrounding the history of Valentine’s Day, some linking the tradition to Catholicism and others to paganism, but the most popular speaks of forbidden love.
Legend has it that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome.
When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than men with wives and children, he outlawed marriage for young men.
Realising this injustice, Valentine defied Claudius and continued performing marriages for young lovers, but in secret. Valentine’s actions were eventually discovered and the priest was put to death.
The Catholic Church allegedly recognises three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.
Another legend suggests Valentine was killed for helping Christians flee from harsh Roman prisons, while a third story offers a reason for the typical ‘From your Valentine’ signing of a card from one lover to another.
The Valentine in this story was imprisoned and allegedly fell in love with his jailer’s daughter, signing a letter he wrote to her, ‘From your Valentine’.
In fact, stories behind Valentine’s Day are so murky that the first and third mentioned here could be one in the same.
Nevertheless, we all love our Romeo and Juliet stories of forbidden love and even school children continue the legend-of-old tradition of leaving secret Valentine’s cards on the desks of those they fancy.
