About Magazines Covington to Madison - February 2017 | Page 6

Valentine Traditions & History

On Tuesday , February 14 , 2017 , couples around the world will be celebrating love and relationships . This is a holiday where traditions are steeped with history . One of the most common traditions is giving cards and gifts that profess your love . The earliest card in the United States was an embossed paper lace card produced in the mid-1840s .

Another tradition is giving hearts . The heart-shaped boxes and heart gifts are symbolic . A heart on Valentine ’ s Day is often associated with cupid and his arrows . Cupid is the Roman God of Love . The story goes that when the God of Love shoots his arrows , his targets fall in love .
Looking further back in history , Valentine ’ s Day began as a religious holiday to celebrate the Christian Saint Valentinus . In early Rome , the Emperor Claudius banned marriage so his soldiers could focus . However ,
St . Valentine continued the important ritual of marrying couples in secret . Therefore , Claudius imprisoned him and ordered his execution . While in prison , he fell in love with the jailer ’ s blind daughter . Legend has it that his love was so great that he healed her sight . Then before his execution , he gave her a letter signed , “ From Your Valentine ”.
It was some time after this when Pope Gelasius caused a change in events . He replaced the pagan god , Lupercus , associated with the spring festival of fertility , with St . Valentine . Originally , men would draw a name of a woman from a box during the festival and they would then be partners during the rest of the year . Thinking this was unorthodox , the pope changed the practice to drawing the name of a Saint who the men would aspire to be like for the year . The men didn ’ t care for this so they ended up adding their own romantic twist by writing letters to young women while using St . Valentine ’ s
name to express affection .
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