Valentines Day,

Who was this St. Valentine fella?
               I had to dig into this and found that the Catholic Church has at least three Saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. 
               One I like in particular is about a Priest who, when Emperor Claudius outlawed marriage for soldiers saying that single men made better fighters than married men with wives and families, Valentine defied the Emperor and continued to preform the marriage ceremonies for young lovers in secrecy.  When Claudius found out he ordered Valentine be put to death.
                 Another legend says that Valentine wrote the first Valentine greeting.  Whilst valentine was awaiting death he wrote a note or poem for a young woman he had fallen in love with, presumably the jailers daughter.  He signed the note "from your Valentine" 
                 Valentine embodies romance and his appeal was well under way by the middle ages when he was one of the most popular St's in England and France.

                  The date on which we celebrate Valentines Day has a couple of beliefs behind that also, one being that Valentines death occurred around the middle of February around 270 A.D and others say that the Church may have decided to celebrate Valentine's day in the middle of February in an effort to "christianize" celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival.            






VALENTINE DAY FACTS

• Almost 141 million cards are exchanged on Valentines Day making it a very close second to Christmas
• The oldest known Valentine card is on display at the British Museum
• In Australia the men are more romantic than the women at 59% buying cards compared to 41% of women.
• Valentine comes from the Latin word valor, meaning worthy.
• At least 3% of us give our pets a special pamper on this day
• About 110 million roses will be sold and delivered within a three-day time period, the majority of those will be red roses.  (On that note, be vary of cheap imported roses, spend a couple of bucks extra and have Aussie grown roses, they will smell much sweeter and the smile on your Mrs' face will be worth it)
• The most popular Valentines gift being chocolates, food, wine, and flowers, with an average of $75 spent.
• People who couldn't write their names signed with an 'X' in front of a witness. The 'X' was then kissed to show sincerity. Many believe this is how the X became a kiss symbol.

• Chocolate has always been seen as an aphrodisiac: Madame DuBarry served chocolates to all of her suitors. Cassanova consumed chocolate instead of champagne to induce romance, and the ancient Aztec king, Montezuma believed chocolate would make him virile..

 

                   



LETS NOT FORGET CUPID
Valentines Day wouldn't be the same without Cupid, that cute little curley haired winged cherub with the bow and arrow.Cupid can be traced back to the days of the Roman Empire. Cupid is a Roman God, symbol of passionate love. The son of Venus (Godess Of Love), Cupid fell hopelessly and completely in love with Psyche, whom it happened was a mortal. This did not please Venus at all and she gave Psyche a particularly hard time, consistently tempting her and driving her off. Eventually, through a small series of human faults, Psyche was tempted to look into the "˜box of beauty' and when she did, she unleashed a deep slumber onto herself. Cupid then came to Earth and searched the world for her. He found her in her deep sleep. His love for her was so strong though that he was able to take the sleep from her and place it back into the box. Then he used an arrow to pierce her heart and awaken her.



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