// a brief history of Valentine's Day //

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I'm going to be dedicating this week to all things lovey and girly and pink, because who says a black-wearing, severely single girl can't celebrate Valentine's Day? Here's the planned schedule:

Monday- a brief history of Valentine's Day 

Tuesday- project: valentines

Wednesday- Valentine's makeup look

Thursday- mood board/pictures

Friday - playlist

Saturday- song+story Saturday(I didn't forget, I decided to move it up a week)

Sunday- bible verses & more

Of course this is subject to slight change, but this is a basic idea of what to look for. Now then, on to

A Brief History of Valentine's Day.

Now, the story I'd heard( if I were being fully transparent here I'd admit it was on Adventures in Odyssey) was that St. Valentine was a priest who bravely defied a Roman emperor. Said emperor had issued a decree that young men/soldiers could not marry, on the grounds this would make for better soldiers. Valentine performed marriage ceremonies in secret, and was captured and sentenced to die. Further variations include his healing of a blind jailers daughter, with whom he also fell in love. Before he died, he sent her a note of love signed 'your Valentine'. It's a very sweet story, but apparently(and unsurprisingly) of dubious authenticity.

Another theory is that a pagan fertility festival was integrated into the Church calendar, as was the case for other holidays. This doesn't have much support either. In actuality, the first association of St. Valentine's Day with love didn't come until the Middle Ages, when Chaucer wrote a couplet about the birds mating season beginning on St. Valentine's Day. This may or may not even have been the same date, as there was another St. Valentine whose feast day was in May. Either way, this was the beginning of St. Valentine's Day being celebrated as a holiday of love. The social time of courtly love helped it to begin to blossom. 

With most modern holidays, the celebration of Valentine's Day as we know it really took off with the Victorians. The Industrial Age enabled mass produced Valentine's and related projects to be manufactured and available. And the postal service aided in anonymity of messages sent back and forth. Since then, marketing still plays a major part in the day, which has spread around the world.

Even though it's background is not as romantic(see what I did there) as it could be, Valentine's Day is nonetheless a wonderful time to celebrate God's gift of love. Romantic love, and other kinds as well- familial, friendship, or if you're totally alone, you can just buy yourself some chocolate and watch a movie. Sounds good to me! It's also a good time to indulge in pink, pretty things, and remember that spring is on the way! 

And of course if you have found your true love, it's the best of days to celebrate just how much you love each other. 

I hope you'll enjoy this week... If you have any suggestions or contributions you'd like to make, esp. song suggestions, let me know! 

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