St Valentine's Day or the Feast of St Valentine is a celebration of one or more early Christian saints named Valentine and observed around the world on February 14. There are several legends of martyrdom around St Valentine, one of which was Saint Valentine of Rome who was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and also for ministering to Christians who were persecuted under the Roman Empire. Legend has it that during his imprisonment he healed the daughter of his jailer, and before his execution he wrote her a letter signed "Your Valentine" as a farewell.
The medieval English poet Geoffrey Chaucer may have invented Valentine's Day. He often took liberties with history, placing his poetic characters into fictitious contexts that he represented as real. In his work "Parliament of Foules" he links a tradition of courtly love with the celebration of St Valentine's feast day. The poem refers to February 14 as "the day birds (and humans) come together to find a mate".
In Great Britain Valentine's Day celebrations became quite popular around the 17th century. By the middle of the 18th it was common for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes and by 1900 printed cards began to appear.
After 45 years together, John and I still uphold this little romantic tradition.
HAPPY ST VALENTINE'S DAY !
(text based on an article by History.com)
