I was nearly 19 before I got my first heart-shaped box of chocolates from a boyfriend for Valentine’s Day. I was totally thrilled.
Of course, I got loads of elementary school style “Valentines” (which were required) from classmates from Kindergarten days until we all outgrew that phase in Middle School when the boys rebelled and usually substituted snarky and sometimes insulting poetic sentiments.
Do they even still do that Valentine exchange in Elementary Schools?
I also remember those little candy hearts with the sayings on them… “Be Mine, Kiss Me, Cutie Pie” and more. They are still around although it might be hard to find them. I’m told.
These days I’m happy with a sentimental card or, occasionally, flowers to celebrate that sweet holiday in mid-winter, and BTW, Jack still is my favorite Valentine…
Did you know, Valentine’s Day is the fifth largest spending event in the United States, after the winter holidays and Mother’s Day, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF)?
Since I was already on-line, I decided to see if I could find out how the holiday even started. I’ve never checked into it before, not that I remember anyway, and I was surprised to find that the origins of this festival of candy and cupids are actually dark, bloody — and a bit muddled.
I did find that one good place to start is ancient Rome, where men hit on women by, … hitting them. “From Feb. 13 to 15, the Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia. The men sacrificed a goat and a dog, then whipped women with the hides of the animals they had just slain.”
It seems the women involved in this event lined up to be “beaten” because “They believed this would make them fertile.”
The name, Valentine’s Day, also turned up in ancient Rome when Emperor Claudius II executed two men, each with the name Valentine, and each on February 14th, but in different years.
Their martyrdom was honored in the 4th century by the Catholic Church with the celebration of St. Valentine’s Day.
In the 5th Century, Pope Gelasius made things even more complicated when he combined St. Valentine’s Day with Lupercalia to expel the pagan rituals, but he couldn’t stop it from being a day of fertility and love.”
St. Valentine’s Day became much sweeter when Chaucer and Shakespeare romanticized it in their work, with it gaining popularity throughout Britain and the rest of Europe. Handmade paper cards became tokens of love during the Middle Ages.
By the mid-19th century, February 14 had become the day in Britain on which people expressed their affection by exchanging lavish cards decorated with lace, ribbons and plump, bow-and-arrow-wielding Cupids.
Eventually, the tradition made its way to the New World. Factory-made cards showed up in the 19th century and by 1913 Hallmark Cards began mass producing valentines.
From at least the time of the Aztecs, chocolate has been seen as an aphrodisiac, but it came into the Valentine’s Day traditions when a chocolate drink was said to have been served at a banquet during Cortéz´s conquest of Mexico and then taken back to Europe, where, In 1847, the British chocolate maker J.S. Fry & Sons produced the first modern-day chocolate bar.
The heart-shaped box of chocolates is credited to Cadbury, who in 1868 reportedly created a fancy box in the shape of a heart for the romantic holiday. Once the chocolates had been eaten, the boxes were deeply prized by sentimental Victorians, who stored love letters, lockets of hair, and other treasured mementos inside.
The 2017 article said, “And so the celebration of Valentine’s Day goes on, in varied ways. Many will break the bank buying jewelry and flowers for their beloveds. Others will celebrate in a SAD (that’s Single Awareness Day) way, dining alone and binging on self-gifted chocolates. A few may even be spending this day the same way the early Romans did. But let’s not go there.”
Today, the holiday is big business: According to a post from the NRF, This year, “the average American plans to spend $175.41 per person on Valentine’s Day gifts, up from $164.76 in 2021. Both of these amounts, though, are actually down from $196.31 per person in 2020.
I’m not surprised. I just looked it up on the computer and a one-pound heart-shaped box of chocolate costs about $15 at Walgreens here in Clare. Surprisingly low, when I googled prices a little earlier of up to $65 for the same size box from other sites over the internet.
And then there’s flowers, my choice since I am trying to avoid those calories…or even maybe just a nice card.
