Love is in the air this month!! You can try to outrun it and hide but February is the month for romance. Valentine’s Day has a long history. 

Lupercalia was festival celebrated February 13-16 in ancient Rome where the Pagan’s would sacrifice animals and gently slap women and crops with the animal hides to boost fertility. Pope Gelasius ended this fun around 496 due to its brutality and shifted the focus to commemorate St. Valentine. St. Valentine was a man of the cloth who ministered to men imprisoned in Rome. In one story, he defies Emperor Claudius II and secretly performs marriage ceremonies for soldiers who were banned from marrying. In the other version, he is in prison and falls in love with the jailer’s blind daughter. He cures her blindness and as he nears his execution date, signs his farewell letter to her, “From your Valentine”.  Now that’s a nicer story!  

Cupid flies in around 700BC from ancient Greece (boy I bet his arms are tired). Ba du tss 

The oldest documented Valentine “card” is from 1415, but it wasn’t until the 1840s when Esther Howland had the idea to start producing specific cards for sale in the US. 
Using flower colors to convey secret messages was brought about by a misunderstanding in the 1700s by Lady Montagu. 

Richard Cadbury threw some chocolates in a heart-shaped box in 1861. Genius! 

A machine to create medical lozenges in 1847 quickly turned into making candy (NECCO Wafers) that evolved into the heart shape. Someone had the idea to print messages on them in 1866. 

How will you celebrate your valentine? Come up with a new tradition? Stick with the mainstream? Decide to slap your wife’s a@# with a squirrel hide? Let me know how that one turns out for you……..

I will simply say, “Happy Valentine’s Day.”
Erin Hensel
Unit 212 Auxiliary President