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Whether you believe in celebrating Valentines Day or not, whether you’re dreaming of that special someone to come into your life or lucky enough to have that persons heart, I hope you had a happy, fun loving Valentine’s.

Personally, I don’t believe in celebrating Love on just one day of the year…you should be making your loved one feel special, loved, wanted, desired, needed, every damn day.

Here’s a little history lesson…

Valentines Day is known as a day for lovers, but have you ever wondered about the history behind St. Valentines Day? When the calendar turns to February, we start to think of love. February has for centuries been designated the month for lovers, with the primary celebration being on February 14, St. Valentines Day. We send cards, flowers, and chocolates and our children give out Valentines in school. Valentines Day reminds us to tell our loved ones just how much we care about them. But have you ever stopped to think about its history? Do you know why February 14 is called Valentines Day and how the tradition of sending cards to each other developed? How did that day ever become associated with love?

Valentines Day was originally created as a substitute. In the fifth century A.D., the Catholic Church attempted to be rid of a common pagan fertility rite that the Romans had been taking part in since the fourth century B.C. Every year the Romans celebrated a young man ??s rite of passage to the god Lupercus by holding a lottery in mid-February. The names of willing teenage girls were placed in a box and drawn at random by teenage men. By this lottery a young man was assigned a young woman companion for their mutual pleasure (often sexual) for the duration of a year. After the year was up another lottery was held. As Christianity spread and the leaders of the Church resolved to do away with this practice by picking a ‘lovers’ saint to replace the god Lupercus. They picked Valentine, a bishop who had been martyred in the third century A.D. for the cause of love.

The story goes that in 270 A.D. Emperor Claudius had issued an edict forbidding marriage because he believed that married men made poor soldiers, not wanting to leave their families to go to battle. Valentine, bishop of Interamna, disagreed with the emperor and invited young lovers to come to him in secret to be married. When Claudius found that he was performing secret marriage ceremonies, he was incensed. He had Valentine seized and brought before him. When Valentine refused to change his views and renounce Christianity, he was put in prison to await execution.

In February of 270, Valentine was clubbed, stoned, and then beheaded. Tradition tells us that while Valentine was in prison he corresponded with those under his care by sending little letters and love notes to those in his parish. It is also believed that while he was in prison the bishop fell in love with the blind daughter of the jailer, Asterius and that God enabled him to miraculously restore her sight. Tradition tells us that his farewell message to her contained a closing that transcended time: From Your Valentine.

In A.D. 496, Pope Gelasius outlawed the Lupercian festival, but cleverly retained the lottery, because he was aware of the Romans love for games of chance. But now instead of names of women in the box, there were placed names of saints. Men and women both picked slips of paper and for the upcoming year they were expected to imitate the life of the saint whose name they had drawn. And St. Valentine was advanced as the overseer of the whole thing. It took some time for this new tradition to take hold, but eventually, more and more Romans relinquished the Lupercian festival and replaced it with Valentines Day.

Traditionally, mainly due to the Lupercian lottery, mid-February was a Roman time to meet and court prospective mates. While the Lupercian lottery was replaced, most Roman young men were not totally satisfied with the lottery of saints names and the new lottery did not last long. Instead the young men instituted a custom of offering women they admired and wished to court handwritten greetings of affection on February 14. The cards became known as Valentine’s Day Cards.

How do others celebrate Valentine’s Day?

Denmark: People send each other pressed white flowers (called snowdrops). Danish men send a “gaekkebrev”, which is a joking love letter. It is sent anonymously, and the name of the sender gets replaced with a dot for each letter of his name. If the woman can guess the name, she will receive an Easter egg from her admirer. Can only guess at the Easter egg bit???

Italy: The Italians hold a Valentine’s Day feast. Many young unmarried women get up early before sunrise and stand by the window. They wait for the first man passing by. The belief is, him or the one who looks similar to him will marry her within one year.

England: In parts of the country women also do the same as the Italian women. Children sing special songs and receive gifts as money. candy, or fruits. In parts of the country people also bake Valentine’s buns.

Germany: In most parts of the country it is just a day like any other day. However, men are supposed to honour their wife, spouse or girlfriend with flowers and little lovers gifts.

Wales: Wooden love spoons are carved and given as gifts on February 14th. Hearts, keys and keyholes were favourite decorations on the spoons. The decoration meant, ‘You unlock my heart!’

Red roses are the single most popular flower to give on Valentine’s Day. Although they may all look the same to the untrained eye, there are actually more than 900 varieties of dark-red and medium-red rose, according to the rose lovers’ web site, Every Rose

My very own sweetheart presented me with a LOVESPOON the day we met *sigh* how romantic!