History of Valentine’s Day

The History of Valentine's Day
On this day a son gives cards or flowers to his parents and grand parents, a friend gives to another friend, a husband gives to his wife, a brother to a sister and boyfriend to a girlfriend to express their love. The history has been a bit of controversy. But there is no confirmation of actually who this saint Valentine was. This day has much of its memory related to Christian and ancient Roman tradition. Lets see who was this Saint Valentine and how was he related with this ancient rite? The Catholic Church recognizes three different saints all with same name Valentine or Valentinus. And all of them where killed the same day i.e. 14th Feb.

According to some legend Valentine served as a priest during the third century in Rome. An Emperor named Claudius II was a king who believed that an unmarried soldier was a better warrior than that who was married and had family. He brought a law by which all young men were prohibited from getting married. Priest Valentine saw this injustice and violated the Emperors law by conducting secret marriages of the young lovers. Claudius could not see anyone breaking laws made by him and gave severe punishment to those who went against it. When the Emperor came to know about Valentine's activities he ordered death as a punishment for his act.

While some say that Valentine may have been killed for trying to help Christians to escape from the Roman prisons where they were in great agony as they were beaten and tortured. Another story says that while Valentine was in prison he felt in love with the girl who probably may have been daughter of jailor. She visited regularly to meet him while he was in the prison. Before his death he wrote a letter in which he signed 'From your Valentine' on February 14 in 270 A.D. This statement is seen even today on the greeting cards. Although the picture of history is not clear but we certainly get an idea that he must have been heroic, sympathetic and romantic personality. He certainly was very famous among the youths and so his stories have been passed by one youth generation to another. In the middle ages, he was known in England and France.

Early Valentines
Initially the valentine's story was conveyed verbally in Europe in the 15th century. Charles, Duke of Orleans was the person who is recognized to have written valentine while he was imprisoned, in 1415. He spent his time by writing romantic poems for his wife. By 16th century written copies were available with most of the people.

In the early years if its practice valentines were hand made and were prepared using colored paper, watercolors and colored inks. Some of them are described below:
Perforated valentines were made by making holes in paper with a pin to look like the lace.

__Cutout valentines: These cards were made by folding paper several times and giving it a lace design with the help of small scissors.

__Acrostic valentines: Poems were written on the cards and the special thing was the beloved ones name was written on first line.

__Rebus valentines: Changes were made in the poems by using small pictures to represent some of the words.

Early cards had black and white pictures painted by factory workers which after some years were replaced with machine made cards. The oldest known Valentine card is present in the British Museum. Esther A. Howland produced the first commercial Valentine's Day greeting cards in U.S. in the around 1840s. Howland, identified as the Mother of the Valentine, made sophisticated creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures called as "scrap".

Modern valentine cards
Today's valentine cards have become more stylish, keeping pace with popular technological advances. Some cards let you record audio message and some allow video to be recorded. Use of the internet has brought the world close and most of the people prefer to tell their beloved ones through e-mails. Many websites offer free use of their cards. Fax is also one medium used by new generation to send their messages. But there are problems of privacy and so some choose simple ways to express their love.
As per the Greeting Card Association around one billion valentine cards are sent each year, which makes Valentine's Day the second largest card sending holiday of the year. As per survey it seen that 85 percent of all valentines are bought by women.