Do you know how Valentines Day started?

February 14 is Valentines Day, the day on which we celebrate and explore love in all it’s many ideals. How a day for lovers came to be celebrated during the middle of February is an interesting and ages old story. The story of Valentines Day begins during the heyday of the Roman Empire, which held a festival every February. This Leprechaun Festival was held in honor of the God of Fertility and during the festivities young men would get to choose their mate. At the time marriage was a common occurrence, but when Claudius became Emperor he changed all of that. Fearing that men would refuse their duty to fight because they would not want to leave their wives behind, he outlawed all marriages. Young couples still fell in love though and still wished to marry and they took these desires to the Catholic Bishop Valentine who, understanding love, began to secretly marry couples. When Claudius found out, he had Valentine arrested and ordered put to death. While waiting in jail, Valentine began exchanging letters with the jailer’s daughter and soon had fallen in love with her. The day he was to be beheaded, he wrote her one last note and signed it: ‘From Your Valentine’.

Some traditions of Valentines Day are quite interesting too:
Besides giving cards, candy and kisses there are some other interesting customs (both current and past) associated with Valentines Day. For instance, in England children take to the street, singing songs and passing out cards. In Denmark people give out pressed white flowers as a sign of their affection. In the 1700’s, English women would write the names of men on small pieces of paper and then roll the paper up inside little balls of clay. They threw the balls into the water and the first paper that popped to the surface was the one with the name of the woman’s true love. A popular belief is that if a woman goes to a graveyard and runs around reciting a certain chant, she will see an image of her true love. A similar idea held over from years past is that on Valentines Day a woman is to sit by her window. The first available man that walks by is the one who is destined to marry her.

What are your Valentines Day traditions? We are pretty simple here and don't often celebrate a lot due to the fact we have 3 Birthdays in the month of February. But I would be interested in how you celebrate?