Oh it’s Love Day already! 2017, you are flying fast!

Happy Valentine’s Day lovers!
Yes, those in love are getting all cute and declaring their love. It’s cute but you make us want to vomit and eye rolls! I’m not a cynic but I’m just not a Valentine’s fan. I don’t believe you need one day out of a year to tell someone you love them. Or to show your appreciation for them. Hallmark make a killing, boutique stores have sales and today florists are loving life.

Yes, I did a blog post about what to buy your loved one.
Yes, I have a jewellery label and advertised over the last few weeks about Valentine’s day.
Yes, I’m being a hypocrite, but I’m fine with that.

Yes, I did send something in the mail to someone but it was more cause they didn’t expect it. They have been super busy and I just wanted them to feel good and smile. Which I was going to do on a normal day but instead I got to theme it up. Life gets busy, we get snowed in with work and forget about the little things. Little things are the best and it can change someone’s day completely.

Valentine’s Day isn’t about what you buy someone. And I think we need to relook at what it’s meant to be about. Which then made me think… How did it all start and who is St Valentine?

Let’s jump back to it’s Roman Roots…
The history of Valentine’s Day is obscure, and further clouded by various fanciful legends. The holiday’s roots are in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, a fertility celebration commemorated annually on February 15. Pope Gelasius I recast this pagan festival as a Christian feast day circa 496, declaring February 14 to be St. Valentine’s Day.
But Who Is SAINT VALENTINE’S?
Which St. Valentine this early pope intended to honour remains a mystery: according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, there were at least three early Christian saints by that name. One was a priest in Rome, another a bishop in Terni, and of a third St. Valentine almost nothing is known except that he met his end in Africa. Rather astonishingly, all three Valentines were said to have been martyred on Feb. 14.

Most scholars believe that the St. Valentine of the holiday was a priest who attracted the disfavour of Roman emperor Claudius II around 270. At this stage, the factual ends and the mythic begins. According to one legend, Claudius II had prohibited marriage for young men, claiming that bachelors made better soldiers. Valentine continued to secretly perform marriage ceremonies but was eventually apprehended by the Romans and put to death. Another legend has it that Valentine, imprisoned by Claudius, fell in love with the daughter of his jailer. Before he was executed, he allegedly sent her a letter signed “from your Valentine.” Probably the most plausible story surrounding St. Valentine is one not focused on Eros (passionate love) but on agape (Christian love): he was martyred for refusing to renounce his religion.

In 1969, the Catholic Church revised its liturgical calendar, removing the feast days of saints whose historical origins were questionable. St. Valentine was one of the casualties.

But I did find this fun fact…

It was not until the 14th century that this Christian feast day became definitively associated with love. According to UCLA medieval scholar Henry Ansgar Kelly, author of Chaucer and the Cult of Saint Valentine, it was Chaucer who first linked St. Valentine’s Day with romance.

In 1381, Chaucer composed a poem in honour of the engagement between England’s Richard II and Anne of Bohemia. As was the poetic tradition, Chaucer associated the occasion with a feast day. In “The Parliament of Fowls,” the royal engagement, the mating season of birds, and St. Valentine’s Day are linked:
‘For this was on St. Valentine’s Day,
When every fowl cometh there to choose his mate.’

So why hell has it become such a crazy money maker?
Over the centuries, the holiday evolved, and by the 18th century, gift-giving and exchanging handmade cards on Valentine’s Day had become common in England. Hand-made valentine cards made of lace, ribbons, and featuring cupids and hearts eventually spread to the American colonies. The tradition of Valentine’s cards did not become widespread in the United States, however, until the 1850s, when Esther A. Howland, a Mount Holyoke graduate and native of Worcester, Mass., began mass-producing them. Today,  the holiday has become a booming commercial success. What was once a small token gesture has become a crazy over the top day for couples! It’s actually crazy, I bet not one of my friends would be able to tell me the history of today.

To the Singles,

You are not alone, Yes today is the most frustrating, annoying day to be on social media. But channel your love to yourself. Buy yourself a treat, even if it’s just a cupcake. Cause you should be celebrating the love. The love for yourself and the love of life. Be thankful for a roof over your head, the fact you have a job, the pet in your life, the friends who make you smile, the love of your family and the way you feel when you have that first sip of coffee in the morning. Life is pretty awesome. Yes, you may be single on the day the world is about celebrating couples but who cares. Cause today is just another day in your awesome life. In 24hrs, it’s a new day, you can go back to social media and back to normal every day.

I type this from the comfort of my couch, in sweat pants, uggs and some chocolate. Bring on the Netflix in bed and more Chocolate later. That’s my V-day night!

Happy St Valentine’s Day!

KB x