Month of Love!

February is also known as the month of love for couples, spouses, or showing self-love. Many restaurants around are doing Valentine’s Day theme meals Saskatoon Lodge is offering a 4 course Valentine’s Day meal, IHOP is offering chocolate strawberry pancakes, or 4 chocolate pancakes with chocolate syrup, Krispy Kreme is also offering the Valentine’s Day themed donuts, and many other places are offering Valentine’s Day deals. How did Valentine’s Day become a holiday? Valentine’s Day started as a Christian feast honoring a maytr named Saint Valentine but who was Valentine? There were many Saint Valentine’s during the 3rd century one of the Valentines was a Roman priest who would marry people in secret against the wishes of the authorities. Valentine was then imprisoned by a noble in his home, where he healed the noble’s blind daughter causing the entire household to convert to Christianity. He was then tortured and later decapitated but before he died he sent a woman a letter and at the end it said “Your Valentine”. Valentine’s Day was also used to try to replace an older holiday Lupercalia during the 3rd century which was celebrated on February 15. Lupercalia was a holiday where women would write their names on clay tablets then men would draw the names out of a jar pairing random couples. In the 1370s or 1380 Chaucer created a poem called “Parliament of Fowls” that contained “For this was Saint Valentine’s Day, when every bird comes there to choose his mate.” This set romantic ideas in Europe. By the 1400s nobles were inspired by Chaucer and started to write poems known as “Valentines” to their spouse. After this event, people started to relate Valentine’s Day with Saint Valentine the priest from the 3rd century. Valentine’s Day started to evolve but people started to exchange candy and homemade cards. Today billions of dollars are spent on Valentine’s Day with candy, stuffed animals, restaurants, and many more exchanges between spouses. Valentine’s Day has a tragic background but now becomes a bright holiday filled with love.