As the love poem goes:

Roses are red
Violets are blue,
Sugar is sweet
And so are you.

**Everyone loves a stack of Red Books!**

Valentine’s Day roots are from ancient Rome. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia - At least three different Saint Valentines, all of them martyrs, are mentioned in the early martyrologies under the date of February 14th.

One was a priest in Rome, During the rule of Emperor Claudius. He banned marriages because Rome was involved in many bloody campaigns and Claudius was having difficulty maintaining an army because men were unwilling to leave their wives and fight. This priest was sent to jail for performing weddings. Before he was killed for refusing to renounce his faith, he sent a loving note to a child he had been helping to teach, the daughter of his jailer, and that note eventually led to the tradition of sending Valentine's cards. Claudius had him killed on or about February 14th 278 A.D.

The second one was a bishop of Interamna (now Terni, Italy) and the third St. Valentine was a martyr in the Roman province of Africa. Of the three men known as "Saint Valentine," the African martyr is the least well known; no romantic associations are attached to his legend, and beyond his martyrdom in what is now North Africa around the year 270, little is recorded of his life. In that year, Roman rule encompassed many provinces across the northern band of the continent, stretching from Egypt to modern-day Morocco.

Some believe that the death of Valentine is what stated Valentine’s Day, but others think it grew out of the Christian church’s effort to Christianize Lupercalia - a pagan love holiday dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture. The festival began with the member of the Luperci, which was an order of Roman priests, gathering at a sacred cave where the founders of Rome (Romulus and Remus) were believed to be cared for by a she-wolf. The Luperci would sacrifice goats for fertility and a dog for purification. The goats hide would be cut into strips, dipped in blood and taken to the streets. They would slap woman and crops in the fields with the bloody strips of goat hide. Roman women embraced the hides because they believed it would make them fertile in the coming year. Women would place their names in an urn to be selected and paired with man. The Feast of Lupercalia was ended in 496 A.D. by Pope Gelasius and he declared February 14 as St. Valentine’s Day.

While people did share Valentine’s Day greetings with one another as early as the Middle Ages, written notes weren’t popular.

Geoffrey Chaucer’s 1381 poem Parliament of Fowls is about Valentine’s Day.

The oldest valentine in existence is a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1415 following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt.

More delightful Hearts from Elena Boiardi.

Valentine’s Day is celebrated in Australia, Canada, France, Mexico and most widely in the United Kingdom and America. Americans started embracing the holiday around the 1830’s.

The Mother of the Valentine that we know is Esther A. Howland. Her father owned a large bookstore and stationery shop in Worcester MA where he sold many things including ornate valentines from England. These cards were the impetus of Esther’s business. She decided to create her own valentines with lace, ribbons and colorful pictures. She created a few prototypes and her brother took them to Boston and New York on her behalf. Quickly she had orders worth a few thousand dollars. This prompted Esther to hire four women and set up headquarters in her family’s home. The company would be known as the New England Valentine Co.

Esther Howland cards

Esther Howland mass produced card 1870s.JPG

Esther understood marketing and every Howland valentine was stamped with a red capital H. If you want to read more about Ms Howland please click the link on her name above.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful Valentine’s Day.

Til next time be well friends.