“Good morrow, Valentine. First to thee and then to mine.
“So please give me a valentine.”
—Centuries old rhyme
Today we send and receive beautiful Valentines. We express our friendship or love or longing to another in gracious ways. Let us learn about the customs of this holiday together. It is entirely appropriate to share on this day, whether it be our thoughts, our wishes, or our memories.
In ancient Rome the mid-Winter holiday was called Lupercalia, from Lupus, a wolf. The wolves would howl around the walls of Rome and so the people killed many of them. When the wolves were fewer in number, they began a great festival to rejoice over the wolves’ decrease.
Many centuries later the English revived this February holiday and liked the custom of drawing names for partners. It happened in Rome that a good bishop named Valentinus (Valentine) was executed February 14 for defying a decree (See the History page by clicking here) to not marry couples, especially soldiers. Thus it came to be that celebrations were named after him. This old world may grow tired of other things, but it can never have too much friendship and affection, can it? 
Another thought has to do with birds and their mating in the Spring. St. Valentine’s Day was long thought to be the time when each bird found a mate. Samuel Johnson in his English dictionary of 1755 wrote, “Now all nature seem’d in love. And birds have drawn their valentines.”
Another version of the origin of Valentine’s Day finds some historians thinking that Charles, Duke of Orleans, began the custom. He was captured by the English during the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. On Valentine’s Day he sent his wife a rhymed love letter from his cell in the Tower of London.
In the 1700s unmarried women pinned five bay leaves to their pillows on the eve of Valentine’s Day. They pinned one leaf to the center of the pillow and one to each corner. If the charm worked, they saw their future husbands in their dreams. In Derbyshire young women circled the village church three or 12 times at midnight and repeated silly verses. Then their true loves were supposed to appear.
During the Middle Ages, St. Valentine’s Day received high favor and individuals of the finest literary talents wrote verses for valentines. Shakespeare makes Ophelia, in Hamlet, say: Good morrow, ‘tis St. Valentine Day, All in the morning betime. And I, a maid at your window, To be your valentine.
“With bags of sugarplums, rose and violet bowers, hearts, doves, true-loveknots and lace-paper flowers,” are some of the lines in Eleanor Farjeon’s poem to the “Good Bishop Valentine.” A child’s verse of “Ice cream soda, Delaware punch, Will you be my honey bunch?” is short and to the point. So it is on February 14 that roses might be redder and violets more blue as we honor love and loved ones.
The first commercial valentines were made in the early 1800s. Many were hand-painted. Some featured a fat cupid or showed arrows piercing a heart. Many were fashioned with satin, ribbon, or lace trim. Dried flowers, feathers, imitation jewels, sea shells or tassels decorated the valentines. From the mid-1800s to the early 1900s many individuals sent a comic valentine and they were called penny dreadfuls. Those cards sold for a penny and featured an insulting verse. Many of those have now become collector’s items.
In Massachusetts, Esther Howland became one of the first manufacturers of valentines. In 1847 she made samples and took orders from stores. She hired a staff of young women and set up an assembly line to produce the cards. One woman glued on paper flowers, another added lace and another painted leaves. Her business was a success at more than $1 Million a year enterprise.
Thus it was.
Thus it came to be.
Thus, evermore will humanity look for someone to love. The voice you want to hear at the end of the day. The letter that arrives in the mail with true sentiments. The laugh that makes life seem less lonely. The smile that delights. The cavalier wit that sees the truth of the day’s posturings. The handwriting like no other. The aroma of a freshly-washed face sprinkled with Old Spice cologne. The warm hand holding yours. The arm that comforts. Two lights shining in the same direction.
Happy Valentine’s Day 2019!