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Today is Valentine’s Day, the day of red roses, boxes of chocolates, romantic dinners for two, and marriage proposals. Who remembers when we were kids, decorating our shoe boxes with hearts and “Be Mine” sentiments? Mom would buy the cheesy valentine cards so we could select who in the class would get which one, and add the little candy hearts to the envelopes. The school would have a small party in the afternoon with homemade cookies and treats while we opened our cards.

How did Valentines Day come to be? Back in the early days of the Christian church, each day of the year celebrated a different saint. There were both a priest and bishop, each named Valentine, near Rome that were executed for defying the emperor around 270 AD: one of them was secretly marrying soldiers against the decree of the emperor, making him look like a proponent of love, while the other one reportedly healed his jailor’s blind daughter, became her friend, and wrote her a letter before his death signed “From your Valentine.” In honor of them, Pope Gelasius designated February 14 as St. Valentine’s Day in the 5th century. He instituted this celebration to replace the pagan festival of Lupercalia, which was a feast of debauchery involving a ritual where an order of Roman priests ran naked through the streets, hitting willing women with the blood-soaked hides of sacrificed animals, of which they believed promoted fertility. Later in the festival, the women would be coupled with men by drawing names from a jar.

The holiday became more romanticized in the middle ages through the works of the poets Chaucer and Shakespeare. Handmade paper cards were popularly traded among suitors during their time.

The commercialized traditions we know today began in the 19th century. Victorian men wooed women with flowers. Cadbury created the first heart-shaped boxes of chocolates and the New England Confectionary Company began making the first conversation candy hearts. Store-bought valentine cards became popularized in America thanks to the innovative assembly-line process developed by Esther Howland. She is considered the mother of the American valentine. By 1910, the company that would become Hallmark, began distributing its more official “Valentine’s Day cards.”

This holiday is not worldwide, but is popular in the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, France, Mexico, Argentina, and South Korea. In the Philippines, it is the most common wedding anniversary, and mass weddings of hundreds of couples take place each year.

We all might think the holiday has become too commercialized, but it is our choice how we celebrate it. We ourselves don’t generally do much for holidays, but Tom secretly started making us homemade bread last night, after I went to bed. It is the first time in 9 months that he made bread, and it was a real treat. He saved some of the dough and made delicious pizza and breadsticks for supper. I really appreciate him and all he does.

Tomorrow, we will be heading to Phoenix for the day to exchange one of our ebikes, check out a possible flat-tow vehicle, and resupply the cupboards at Costco. If time permits, we may tie in a few scenic stops as well.

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