So who was Saint Valentine? Does Valentine’s Day have anything to do with Saint Valentine?
And why have I never had a Valentine card except for ones made by the children at school when they were little? And why do some people make such a big deal of it. And why do shops have so much ‘stuff”? Actually I know the answer to that last question……….. it’s all about the money.
There was probably more than one St Valentine, possibly one was a Roman Physician another a Bishop in Italy but one of these was a 3rd century martyr, and little is known about him but there is an undisputed history of people celebrating on this day going back 600 years. Chaucer wrote, sometime between 1376 and 1382, a poem telling how birds choose their mates on St Valentines Day each year and this day was supposed to be the first day of spring in many places.
The Greeks and Romans observed a special day at this time of the year for their goddesses Hera and Juno who represented women and marriage.
It was the Victorians who started sending cards and for a time these became comic and rude so that the tradition fell out of favour, gradually being revived through the early 20th century and now it’s hard to avoid!.
I’ve found a couple of weather sayings for the 14th
