St. Valentine's Day
February
14
Custom decrees that on
this day the young shall exchange missives in which the love of the sender is
told in verses, pictures, and sentiments. No reason beyond a guess can be given
to connect St. Valentine with these customs. He was a Christian martyr, about
270 A.D., while the practice of sending valentines had its origin in the heathen
worship of Juno. It is Cupid's day, and no boy or girl needs any encouragement
to make the most of it.
WHO BEGAN IT?
BY OLIVE THORNE
There's one thing we know positively, that
St. Valentine didn't begin this fourteenth of February excitement; but who did
is a question not so easy to answer. I don't think any one would have begun it
if he could have known what the simple customs of his day would have grown into,
or could even have imagined the frightful valentines that disgrace our shops
to-day.
It began, for us, with our English
ancestors, who used to assemble on the eve of St. Valentine's day, put the names
of all the young maidens promiscuously in a box, and let each bachelor draw one
out. The damsel whose name fell to his lot became his valentine for the year. He
wore her name in his bosom or on his sleeve, and it was his duty to attend her
and protect her. As late as the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries this custom
was very popular, even among the upper classes.
But the wiseacres have traced the custom
farther back. Some of them think it was begun by the ancient Romans, who had on
the fourteenth or fifteenth of February a festival in honor of Lupercus,
"the destroyer of wolves"—a wolf-destroyer being quite worthy of
honor in those wild days, let me tell you. At this festival it was the custom,
among other curious things, to pair off the young men and maidens in the same
chance way, and with the same result of a year's attentions.
Even this is not wholly satisfactory. Who
began it among the Romans? becomes the next interesting question. One old writer
says it was brought to Rome from Arcadia sixty years before the Trojan war
(which Homer wrote about, you know). I'm sure that's far enough back to satisfy
anybody. The same writer also says that the Pope tried to abolish it in the
fifth century, but he succeeded only in sending it down to us in the name of St.
Valentine instead of Lupercus.
Our own ancestry in England and Scotland have observed some very funny
customs within the last three centuries. At one time valentines were fashionable
among the nobility, and, while still selected by lot, it became the duty of a
gentleman to give to the lady who fell to his lot a handsome present. Pieces of
jewelry costing thousands of dollars were not unusual, though smaller things, as
gloves, were more common.
There was a tradition among the country people that every bird chose its mate
on Valentine's day; and at one time it was the custom for young folks to go out
before daylight on that morning and try to catch an owl and two sparrows in a
net. If they succeeded, it was a good omen, and entitled them to gifts from the
villagers. Another fashion among them was to write the valentine, tie it to an
apple or orange, and steal up to the house of the chosen one in the evening,
open the door quietly, and throw it in.
Those were the days of charms, and of course the rural maidens had a sure and
infallible charm foretelling the future husband. On the eve of St. Valentine's
day, the anxious damsel prepared for sleep by pinning to her pillow five bay
leaves, one at each corner and one in the middle (which must have been
delightful to sleep on, by the way). If she dreamed of her sweetheart, she was
sure to marry him before the end of the year.
But to make it a sure thing, the candidate for matrimony must boil an egg
hard, take out the yolk, and fill its place with salt. Just before going to bed,
she must eat egg, salt, shell and all, and neither speak nor drink after it. If
that wouldn't insure her a vivid dream, there surely could be no virtue in
charms.
Modern valentines, aside from the valuable presents often contained in them,
are very pretty things, and they are growing prettier every year, since large
business houses spare neither skill nor money in getting them up. The most
interesting thing about them, to "grown-ups," is the way they are
made; and perhaps even you youngsters, who watch eagerly for the postman,
"sinking beneath the load of delicate embarrassments not his own,"
would like to know how satin and lace and flowers and other dainty things grew
into a valentine.
It was no fairy's handiwork. It went through the hands of grimy-looking
workmen before it reached your hands.
To be sure, a dreamy artist may have designed it, but a lithographer, with
inky fingers, printed the picture part of it; a die-cutter, with sleeves rolled
up, made a pattern in steel of the lace-work on the edge; and a dingy-looking
pressman, with a paper hat on, stamped the pattern around the picture. Another
hard-handed workman rubbed the back of the stamped lace with sand-paper till it
came in holes and looked like lace, and not merely like stamped paper; and a row
of girls at a common long table put on the colors with stencils, gummed on the
hearts and darts and cupids and flowers, and otherwise finished the thing
exactly like the pattern before them.
You see, the sentiment about a valentine doesn't begin until Tom, Dick, or
Harry takes it from the stationer, and writes your name on it.
Here's a really fun idea for your Valentine's Day Party...a masked ball. Have each of your guests come in Valentine's colors with a mask that's appropriate for the occasion...angel, devil, cupid...just to name a few. The masks will add an air of mystery and lots of fun conversation to your special event.