Today is Valentine's Day. As usual, right after my students were gone home, I anxietly blowsed through my blog and yours. Since there are quite a number of articles about Valentines, I have decided to write about the origin of this special day.

Valentine's Day began over 2,700 year ago. It was very different back then. It began in Rome, Italy. When Rome was built, hungry wolves lived all around it. The Romans were afraid of the wolves so they prayed to Lupercus, a god who watched over sheep and shepherds. The Romans held a holiday for him each year. They asked him to keep them safe. They kept celebrating this holiday even after the wolves were gone. Slowly, his holiday became a holiday for Juno instead. Juno was the queen of the Roman gods. She ruled over marriage. That's why Valentine'd Day got the flavor of love.

By the year 496, the Christian church had become powerful. Pope Gelasius was head of the church. He didn't believe in the old Roman gods. Naturally he didn't want people to worship them. He tried to stop it, but he simply just could not. So he decided to make the old holiday into a church holiday. First he needed a reason for a holiday. He looked around for a saint to honor. And he found one named Valentine.Valentine died on February 14, 269. Juno's holiday was on Feb. 15th. Pope G ended Juno's holiday. He changed it to Saint Valentine's Day.

Different European countries celebrated this holiday differently. In Denmark, men sent white flowers named snowdrops to their sweethearts. Danish people thought they brought good luck. However, Scotish people would not like snowdrops becasue they thought those flowers brought bad luck.(They would not get married that year.)It was English who brought St. Valentine's Day to America. Don't think this holiday became popular immediately. Early settlers were fighting for their lives first and  St. Valentine's Day was not hot until after 1910.

As far as candy, cards and flowers are concerned, I did some research too. Rose is the flower of love. Cards had sweet words with poems first, then they grew mean and people called them penny dreadfuls. (Those cards teased fat or thin people and they costed a penny back then.) Finally people made the Valentine cards nothing but nice again. Ribbons go back to the days when ladies gave ribbons to their favorite knights. Lace comes from a Latin word. It means "to catch." It is my hope that at least I have caught your attention of reading my story today. Happy Valentine's Day my friends.