Welcome to Colleen’s Corner. This is a column meant for fun and some information About myself: I am a Freelance Photographer you often see me on the side of the road or in various places taking photos of different things animals, birds, places, people etc. l have lived in Lumby for over 8 years, you have seen my photos in the newspaper (Lumby Valley Times) and once in awhile in the Vernon Morning Star, and the Lumby Art Gallery. Photography is my passion. Disclaimer: The information on some of my photos that I write about a lot of times come from the Internet or books I research them, hopefully the facts are as close to the truth as I can come.
By Colleen Fielding
Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day? Did you get flowers or chocolates? Did you get engaged or married on Valentine’s Day?
Did you get up in the middle of the night and ask people to give you money, like the very rich “orange man” did, now that’s funny!
Valentine’s day started many years before any of us were thought of it has a long history of events. Some are happy, some are very dark.
Let’s take a walk through the history.
Rome had festivals called Lupercalia, these festivals would be wild with people getting matched up to others regardless of who they were as long as they were fertile, during these festivals there were also animal sacrifices, they thought by doing this it would help to purify their city.
The young handsome Roman god EROS is thought to be the real cupid, later instead of showing a god, a chubby baby angel with wings was presented as Cupid.
The Greek goddess of love Aphrodite her favourite flower was Red Roses helping to make these flowers the romantic flower.
In history there was more than one Saint Valentine, the Roman Empire had executed one of them, there are different stories to why he was executed, some of them say that he married soldiers in secret, others say it was because he was a martyr. The other was from Italy and a martyr.
During Medieval times in different parts of Europe, they had a thing called “Love Lotteries” their names would be placed in a bowl, the name they drew would become their Valentine for a whole year. Sometimes they would have to stay together for awhile, exchanging gifts with each other, and acting as a couple, they may not have met each other before drawing their names out of the bowl. It wasn’t all bad for the Medieval time most people couldn’t sign their names so they would sign with an X then kiss it showing their sincerity, this where the XOXO came from.
In 1415 Charles the Duke of Orleans was a prisoner in the Tower of London sent a poem to his wife this is apparently the first and oldest Valentine’s Day love poem.
Over the years of course there were things people believed about Valentine’s Day relating to women, if a woman saw a bird on Valentine’s morning, she would know what her future husband would be. If the bird was a Sparrow, she would have a poor marriage, seeing a Goldfinch meant she would marry into wealth, if she saw a Robin, it meant she would marry a sailor. If the woman dreamed of a man on Valentine’s Day this of course would mean she would marry him. Hahaha, sorry I really must laugh at some of the weird wife’s tales that would go around.
During the 19th century Valentine cards were sent out as hate mail they were called “vinegar valentines” they consisted of cruel messages that people would send out anonymously to others. These messages were so bad insulting people on how they looked, how smart they were, and so many other things including social status that the postal workers would refuse to deliver them.
At one time during the Victorian era there were so many Valentine Cards being delivered, the good and the bad ones in the US and the UK extra deliveries had to be added to get all the cards out.
In the early 1900s, if you didn’t give someone a Valentine meant you didn’t care about them, this was presented to the public from various companies using guilt to make people buy gifts, the pressures worked, the guilt paid off. People would buy their loved one’s gifts. In the 1920’s and 30s people ads by the companies suggested that if you didn’t give someone chocolate on Valentine’s Day to your loved ones your relationship might not be on good grounds anymore.
Once upon a time the sweet candies were medicine pills, until a pharmacist decided he too could make some extra cash for Valentine’s Day, he added sugar to the pills and stamped them with messages.
Going out for dinner on Valentine’s Day started around the 1940s.
In 1929, on Valentine’s Day something very dark happened in Chicago. This became known as The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. Seven people from the North Side Gang were in a garage talking, then some other men entered the garage two of the men were dressed as police, they ordered the seven men to line up against the wall. The seven men did as told thinking they were being arrested, they were all shot and killed by the men including the two dressed as police by machine guns and a shotgun. This was apparently a killing due to a rival war between Al Capone and George (Bugs) Malone, Bugs was not killed in the shooting as he had left the building earlier when he saw the “fake police”. No one was ever convicted of the shootings in the garage.
In the card world, Valentine’s Day tops them all, being second to Christmas. Teachers get more Valentine’s Day cards from their students than people from their spouse and kids, way to go teachers!
On Valentine’s Day in Japan the women will give the men chocolate, then a month later the men will give the women chocolate on a special day called “White Day”.
In 1861 Richard Cadbury form Cadbury chocolates created the heart-shape box that is now used everywhere for Valentine’s Day.
There are towns in the USA named Valentine, in Nebraska, Texas, and Arizona. Every year these towns get numerous requests to postmark Valentine Day cards.
Some people feel intimated and pressured by Valentine’s Day, some are lonely, some people don’t celebrate it all.
Whatever you choose enjoy yourself and remember it’s just another day.
