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| The Lover's Letter Box, George Baxter |
Although the custom of giving lace-edged, heart-shaped cards
to sweethearts and lovers is Victorian in origin, the association of the
fourteenth of February with romance goes back a lot further than that. In Roman
times it was the eve of Lupercalia, a pagan festival of youth and fertility.
During the festival, those taking part chose their sweethearts by way of a
lottery. Stripped naked, the young men ‘chastised’ their chosen women on the
bottom with goat or dog-skin whips. This was supposed to improve fertility!
While actually unconnected with the celebrations and
traditions of the day, St. Valentine – who was renowned for his chastity as
well as supporting love and marriage – was martyred on this same date. In about
AD 197, Valentine of Terni, a Christian and Bishop of Interamna (now Terni) was,
it is thought, imprisoned for his faith on the orders of a Roman called Placid
Furius (yes, really!) and tortured before being beheaded on the Via Flaminia in
Rome. Legend has it he was executed on the fourteenth of February; in all
probability, however, somebody thought it was too good an opportunity to miss.
In the reign of Emperor Claudius (about AD 289) another
priest called Valentine, also a Christian, seems to have been arrested for
giving relief to prisoners. Sundry, improbable, stories are attached to his
name, where he variously converted his jailer to Christianity by healing the
sight of the man’s daughter; fell in love with the daughter and sent her a love
letter ‘From your Valentine’; and, when Claudius supposedly banned marriage
among young men to make them better soldiers, Valentine was purported to have
continued to perform weddings, thus leading to his arrest. Valentine of Rome is
also said to have died on the fourteenth of February.
Approaching two hundred years later, in about AD 496, Gelasius,
the Pope of that time, ordered that 14 February was to be a Christian feast day
and would be named St. Valentine’s Day. This smacks rather strongly of the later
claiming of the day following All Hallows’ Eve (Hallowe’en) by the Church as All Saints’ Day somewhere around
835. Originally introduced in May, to commemorate martyrs without a particular feast day, it was moved to the first of November to counteract paganism. The last day of the Celtic calendar, the 31st October was the date when the ancient ritual of Samhain was celebrated. Samhain thus became overshadowed by All Hallows' Eve and the Church took back an edge of control. Claim a pagan rite as your own and you not only save face, you can keep
the people under your thumb!
It would seem that the connection with the giving of
(generally) anonymous love-tokens stems from the belief held in medieval
England and France, that the beginning of the second fortnight of the second
month of the year was when the birds began to mate. In 1382, Chaucer wrote, in
respect of the betrothal of Richard II to Anne of Bohemia, ‘For this was on St. Valentine's Day/ When
every fowl cometh there to choose his mate.’ In the liturgical calendar of
Valentine of Genoa, however, the saint’s day was the second of May – a more
appropriate time for birds to mate in England. This is considered the first
connection of St. Valentine’s Day with romantic love, nevertheless.
By 1601, the feast day was enough of an entity for the Bard
himself to have Ophelia lament, ‘For this
was on St. Valentine's Day/ When every fowl cometh there to choose his mate.’
Two hundred and fifty years later, love-notes had become popular, and in 1797
was published The Young Man’s Valentine
Writer, a guide to messages and verse for the aspiring lover.
As with all such festivals, traditions and customs have
become synonymous with the occasion. The Roman introduction of chance into the
choosing of a partner can be seen in the custom whereby the first member of the
opposite sex one sees on the fourteenth is then said to be one’s Valentine.
Another custom slowly being lost in the mists of time is
that where young girls put bay leaves beneath their pillows before going to bed
on St. Valentine’s Day, in the hopes of dreaming of future husbands. Other
games of divination included this popular one: Name(s) of the favoured one(s) were
written on slips of paper, enclosed in balls of moist clay and then dropped
into a bowl of water. The first piece of paper thus named to rise to the
surface would reveal the future sweetheart. Once a girl had chosen her
Valentine, he was honour bound to present her with a lover’s gift.
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| An Illicit Letter, Vittoio Reggianini |
In the Regency era, lovers of all walks of life might
exchange little hand-written billets doux
or poems, and gentlemen would present posies of flowers to their sweethearts.
Little gifts, of ribbons, lace, a book or perhaps a favourite sweetmeat, were
considered unexceptionable tokens of affection, although these were not
confined to St. Valentine’s Day. That custom had begun to fade as far
previously as the mid eighteenth century, although still continued in parts of
Northern England. Nonetheless, as the nineteenth century progressed and postal
distribution became more accessible to ordinary folk, anonymous cards were
possible. Manufactories began to mass-produce tokens for St. Valentine’s Day,
and the downward spiral into commercialism had begun.
All pictures Public
Domain
© Heather King
