Saturday 14 February 2015

More About Valentine's Day


Guess what yesterday afternoon I was that tired that I posted the wrong post, what I posted was my information I used to write a post. This is the post I was going to post yesterday you now get it today.

Valentine's Day it's been around a while but do you know for how long, do you think it was a holiday invented by Hallmark to sell cards and a chocolate factory to see chocolate if so you are not quiet right.

There was in fact a St. Valentine he was a Roman Priest and lived way back when he was executed in 269AD on the 14th of February. He was buried at what is now the Church of Praxedes in Rome. It is said that Julia planted a pink-blossomed almond tree near his grave, which is why the almond tree remains a symbol of abiding love and friendship.

So the 14th of February became known as St. Valentine's Day and on that day messages of love, affection and devotion are exchanged around the world.

There are others who believe that Valentine's Day has it's roots in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia a fertility celebration and that it was Pope Gelasius who declared that the 14th of February was to be St. Valentine's Day. Which St. Valentine the pope intended to honour will forever remain a mystery: according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, there were at least three early Christian saints by the name Valentine. All three are said to have been martyred on the 14th of February.

So honestly I doubt we will ever really know from whence the day came.

What we do know is that over time the holiday evolved and around the 18th century, gift-giving and exchanging hand-made cards on Valentine's Day had become pretty common in England and other parts of the world, although it wasn't till around the 1850s that the idea took off in America. It was Esther A. Howland who first began to mass-produce cards for the holiday. Today, of course, the holiday is a big commercial thing with around 25% of all cards being sent being Valentine's Day cards.

Now Of course we all I think know what happened on Valentine's Day 1929, but in case you don't or have forgot that was the date of the Valentine's Day massacre. Five members of the North Side Gang along with gang collaborators Schwimmer and May were lined up against a wall and executed. They were shot with Thompson sub-machine guns one of which contained a 20-round box magazine and the other a 50-round drum. The victims were shot left and right and continued to be shot even after they hit the floor. In fact the seven victims were ripped apart in the volley and two shotgun blasts afterward all but the faces of John May and James Clark where obliterated according to the coroner's report. I could tell you more but I am not going to because well I don't feel like it.









11 comments:

  1. Dearest Jo-Anne,
    What a horrible massacre on Valentine's Day in 1929... Unforgettable and it puts a stain on the actual meaning of that day.
    Guess it doesn't really matter which Valentine it was, the gesture is a nice one only that it probably has gotten way out of hand too. Learned from the news here in the USA that the average American person spends around US $ 145 on Valentine's Day! Not me though... that is sick and has nothing to do with LOVE!
    Happy Valentine's Day - ALWAYS I would love to say.
    Mariette

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    1. Yeah I know Valentine's Day 1929 is a day many have heard of, and I can tell you I don't spend that much on the day as Tim and I generally speaking don't do much or anything for the day

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  2. I know a bit of the history of Vslentine's Day. Never the less it was interesting to read your synopsis. Happy Valentine's Day. :)

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  3. Dreadful things happened.
    Happy Valentine's Day.

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  4. No matter how it all began, I've just never been a fan of Valentine's Day. It's got to be the most annoying of all holidays. It took me YEARS to get the husband not to give me things or take me out on Valentine's Day. I just don't see the sense in setting aside one day for something we should show on a daily basis.

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    1. It is not a day that Tim and I really bother with

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  5. How very interesting. I'm glad I didn't know anything about this when I was in elementary school. I had great fun in school with this (as do my two little grandsons now) and loved going out with my sister and friends in the evening delivering Valentines around the neighborhood. Sometimes we tied a string to the valentine and jerked it away just as the person bent down to pick it up. We only did this a few times, though, and for fun. Everyone involved laughed. It was jolly good fun in a world that was kinder than the world is today (in the late 1940s and 1950s). I loved my outdated world. Thanks, Jo-Anne, for this post that jogged my good memories.

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    1. Life in the 40's and 50's was pretty cool, well it always looks to be on the telly I wasn't born till the 60's so wasn't around to know

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