Valentine's Day

Good Morning, Gentle Readers!

This is not one of my images: A friend sent me an e-mail some time back with a bunch of cat pictures in it. Since Valentine's Day is coming up, I thought this one seemed appropriate. Isn't love adorable?

I was a little bit curious about the origin of Valentine's Day, so I looked up the Wikipedia article. Wikipedia isn't always the most reliable source due to its very nature, but it's good in a pinch, and can point one in the direction of sources.

I found that the modern version of Valentine's Day didn't appear until medieval times, with the giving of cards and candy. However, I did see several versions of tales of Saint Valentine, all of which ended with him being martyred in Rome. One of these stories talked of Saint Valentine performing secret weddings for young men against the orders of then-emperor Claudius II, and being killed for that. But the night before he died, he wrote the first 'valentine' himself, depending on the source to the blind daughter of the jailer that he had healed, or to some other young girl.

It was a common practice of the Christian church to try to overwrite non-Christian holidays with holidays of their own making, so Valentine's Day was celebrated in mid-February- which is the day dedicated to Olympus' first couple, Zeus and Hera. Needless to say, the holiday took on the traits of the holiday it was supposed to replace.

Valentine's Day has a long and varied history in which verses and cards were created for those who don't have a talent for words, which was eventually associated with romance, and which was even associated with even more gifts of candy. As with many holidays, it has evolved a long was from when it was first instituted.

May your Valentine's Day be a happy one.

Until we meet, Gentle Readers...