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 14^th 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 14^th 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 14^th 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 14^th 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 18^th 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.