Starbound Lovers: VALENTINE'S DAY

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

VALENTINE'S DAY - A SHORT HISTORY

4:00 AM | Posted by Elysa | | Edit Post

At first for February I thought I'd blog about how Valentine's Day inspires romance authors, but then I realized I'm not a big fan of the holiday. There's the whole St. Valentine's Day Massacre thing and my dog died on Valentine's Day. Not very romantic. Plus, I was pretty sure the idea was invented by some greeting card company like Sweetest Day and Grandparent's Day. So I did a little research on how Valentine's Day got started.

Seems the holiday started out to honor several Christian martyrs by the name of Valentine. The two that are celebrated are Valentine of Rome martyred about AD 269 and Valentine of Terni about AD 197. The original biographies of these martyrs make no mention of any romantic elements in their martyrdom. It wasn't until the 14th century and Chaucer that romance was linked to Saint Valentine and the distinctions between the two saints were forgotten.

The connection between the martyred saints and romance is based solely on legends. In one legend Roman Emperor Claudius II tried to convert Saint Valentine to Roman paganism. Valentine refused and tried to convert Claudius to Christianity instead and as a result was executed. Nothing vaguely romantic here.

In modern times the lore has been embroidered to show Valentine as a priest who performed marriage ceremonies in secret, defying Claudius II's law that young men remain single so he could grow his army. When Claudius learned of Valentine's actions he was jailed.

Another addition to The Golden Legend with no basis in fact is told by American Greetings (yep, I knew a greeting card company was to blame) to History.com. The night before Valentine was to be executed he supposedly wrote the first "valentine" card to a young girl he addressed as beloved. The card was signed "From your Valentine." A bit more romantic in a sorry, sad sort of way. No Happily Ever After for St. Valentine.

Then there are Valentine's Day cards - a whole other subject I'm not a fan of. Like Charlie Brown said, "I know people don't like me, but why do we have to have a holiday to emphasize it?"

Remember how in grade school there was always a Valentine's Day party? There'd be cupcakes decorated with red, pink and white frosting. Each child made fancy lace cards with glitter and painted macaroni glued on them, and decorated a shoebox to set on their desk. Then they'd all walk around the classroom and drop the cards into the boxes of their friends. Well, up until some sympathetic teacher made it mandatory for the kids to make cards for everyone, not just their favorite friends my box was usually pretty empty. I was not a popular kid.

Except on the playground. There I was the queen of storytelling.

When in third grade some mean boys teased that because I didn't like kickball I was an alien, my always active imagination took flight. For the rest of the school year, every day at recess I spun tales of being from Venus. Being in the accelerated reading group and an avid reader of science fiction I drew on the stories I'd read and created a fictional world and persona that kept my tormentors interested in something other than teasing me. Unfortunately it didn't earn me any more Valentine's Day cards.

After that I discovered that I liked making up stories with happy endings about fictional places and people. So I guess in a way Valentine's Day did inspire me and set me on the path to becoming a romance author.

Labels: Cupid, short fantasy romance, short valentine's day romance, Valentine's Day

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VALENTINE'S DAY - A SHORT HISTORY

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