Valentine’s Day built on rich history

    Valentine’s Day, also called Saint Valentine’s Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated every year in the U.S. on Feb. 14.
    In the beginning, it could be said that Valentine’s Day was founded on the concept of love in marriage. But today, Valentine’s Day has become a time to show friends and family how much they are loved and cared for, too.
    Valentine’s Day is commonly celebrated by exchanging handmade or store-bought Valentine greeting cards or other tokens of affection like chocolates and flowers.
    In many schools, students bring Valentines to exchange with classmates. Couples often spend special time together to honor their love for each other.
    Commercialization of the holiday has also escalated.
    Christmas and New Year’s are barely over when many retail stores begin displaying a plethora of red, white and pink Valentine items.
    Yet, make no mistake, Valentine’s Day is still synonymous with love. It’s considered the year’s most romantic holiday.
    According to the National Retail Federation, Valentine’s Day spending in the U.S. is expected to reach near $26 billion in 2023.
    Major retailers, online sellers and local flower and gift shops experience a dramatic increase in sales of flowers, chocolates, jewelry and other gifts this time of year.
    One of Imperial’s flower and gift shops is preparing to meet the demands.
    Ronee Krueger, owner of Lavender Market, said, “We usually spend two days each week processing the flowers we get in. But with Valentine’s Day, it is going to be much busier.”
    She expects a shipment of somewhere around 1,000 roses soon, which she and her crew will process and have ready to fill orders.
    She said their top request for Valentine’s Day is flowers, especially red, white and pink roses, followed by chocolates and candles.
    “Then there’s Feb. 15 when we usually have a customer or two come in and say, ‘Oh my God, I forgot!’” Krueger chuckled.
    They are prepping for Valentine’s Day and they’ll be ready, she said.
More to the story
    Just like many holidays, there’s a lot more behind Valentine’s Day than cards and gifts.
    Valentine’s Day is named after Saint Valentine, who lived in Rome during the third century.     But there is some confusion on historical facts. There were two men named Valentine. It’s not clear for which martyr Valentine’s Day was named.
    During that time, many Romans were converting to Christianity, but the Emperor Claudius II Gothicus was a pagan and created strict laws about what Christians were allowed to do.
    Claudius, nicknamed Claudius the Cruel because of his harsh leadership, believed that Roman soldiers should be completely devoted to Rome, so he outlawed marriage for young soldiers, believing single men made better soldiers.
    St. Valentine, a young Catholic priest in Rome, did not agree with the mandate and chose to defy the order. He began marrying soldiers in secret Christian ceremonies. This was what inspired his reputation for believing in the importance of love.
    Eventually, Valentine was found out and jailed for his crimes against Claudius and sentenced to death. He was executed on Feb. 14, 270 AD.
    St. Valentine gave his life so that young couples could be bonded together in holy matrimony.
    Another legend suggests the other St. Valentine was a third century Bishop—killed for attempting to help Christians escape prison in Rome, and that he actually sent the first “valentine” message himself while imprisoned—writing a letter signed, “From your Valentine.” He was also executed by order of the Emperor Claudius II on Feb. 14 but in a different year.
    It would be more than 200 years later before Feb. 14 was proclaimed as St. Valentine’s Day. Rome had become Christian, and the Catholic Church was determined to eliminate any remaining paganism.
    St. Valentine was granted sainthood and the Catholic Church created a feast in his honor. Feb. 14 was the day of celebration partially because of the ancient belief that birds began their mating season on that day. The Pope proclaimed this day as Saint Valentine’s Day, establishing it as a feast-day on the Catholic Calendar of Saints.
    Even though it was first recognized by the Catholic Church as honoring a martyred Roman Priest/Bishop, Valentine’s Day as we know it should best be understood as a secular custom.
    Although the Roman Catholic Church continues to recognize St. Valentine as a saint of the church, he was removed from the General Roman Calendar in 1969 because of the lack of reliable information about him.
    “We (Catholic Church) respect St. Valentine as the Patron Saint of Marriage. We no longer observe Valentine’s Day in connection with St. Valentine’s deeds, but rather celebrate World Marriage Day every year on the second Sunday in February, sometimes coinciding with St. Valentine’s Day. This year, it takes place this Sunday, Feb. 12,” said Father Lothar Gilde, pastor of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church.
    This Sunday, a church  brunch will honor couples married 40 years or more. Each couple will be recognized on a different Sunday during the year with a special Mass said in their names.
    The observance of World Marriage Day is “kind of” a connection to Valentine’s Day and St. Valentine, just not as intense as it once was, he added.
    St. Valentine’s Day did not begin to resemble the romantic holiday known today until the Middle Ages, thanks to the poet Geoffrey Chaucer.
    At the time of Chaucer’s writing, Feb. 14 also happened to be considered the first day of spring in Britain, as well as the start of birds’ mating season.
    “The poet was the first to link St. Valentine with romantic love in his 14th-century works ‘The Parliament of Fowls’ and ‘The Complaint of Mars’,” stated the late scholar Jack B. Oruch, a University of Kansas English professor.
    “Parliament of Fowls” is about birds gathering to choose their mates. One of the verses reads, “For this was on Saint Valentine’s Day, when every fowl comes there his mate to take.”
    Oruch credited Chaucer for the invention of Valentine’s Day as we know it today.
    When referring to early-century events, Father Gilde said he knew about some of St. Valentine’s story, but wasn’t knowledgeable on the tie between Feb. 14 and a mating season for birds.
    Birds had been mentioned in connection with the pagan fertility festival of Lupercalia that took place Feb. 15 for several centuries before Christianity spread throughout the region.
    Some believe Lupercalia was a predecessor to Valentine’s Day but that hasn’t been established.
    “We try to ‘baptize’ or ‘purify’ the culture to preserve the good aspects that are present in the celebration rather than the bad. God made birds and they are good—their association was not evil. It’s part of the cycle of nature,” said Father Gilde.
    “God is Love. It’s written into the human heart to recognize love in all cultures,” he continued.
    The oldest known Valentine is a poem handwritten in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife after he was captured at the Battle of Agincourt and imprisoned.
    By the mid-18th century, it was becoming common for friends and lovers to exchange small tokens and notes on Valentine’s Day. In the 19th century, the industrial revolution brought about the printing of Valentine’s Day cards.
    In 1913, Hallmark Cards began mass-producing Valentines. 

Valentine Tidbits

    *Flowers are the most popular gift, and the rose became the flower of choice as it was supposedly the favorite flower of Venus, the Goddess of Love. Over 220 million roses are sent on Valentine’s Day.  
    *More than 8 billion conversation heart candies are manufactured each year by Necco. Each box has about 45 sayings, such as “True Love,” “Hug Me” and “You Rock.”
    *According to Hallmark, 145 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged every Feb. 14, not including children’s valentines. It’s the second biggest holiday for cards after Christmas.
    *American households spent an estimated $751.3 million on gifts for their pets on Valentine’s Day last year.
    *The Cadbury family started first offering a heart-shaped box of chocolates in 1868. Today, more than 36 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolates are sold each year.  
    *Nearly 6 million couples get engaged on Valentine’s Day.
    *There are four states with cities named Valentine in the U.S.—Nebraska, Arizona, Texas and Virginia, although Virginia adds an “s” at the end.