This day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. But did you know these details about the annual celebration of love?
A sample print of "For the Love of Nature". This heart shape occurred in the log naturally.
Facts about Valentine's Day
1. The origin
Some trace Valentine’s Day origins to a Christian effort to replace a pagan fertility festival that has been dated as far back as the 6th century B.C. During the festival of Lupercalia, Roman priests would sacrifice goats and dogs and use their blood-soaked hides to slap women on the streets, as a fertility blessing.
2. Romeo and Juliet
Every year, thousands of romantics send letters addressed to Verona, Italy to “Juliet,” the subject of the timeless romantic tragedy, “Romeo and Juliet.” The city marks the location of the Shakespearean tale, and the letters that reach the city are dutifully answered by a team of volunteers from the Juliet Club.
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3. Chocolate anyone?
The Valentine’s Day tradition of giving a box of candy was started in the 19th century by Richard Cadbury, a scion of a British chocolate manufacturing family.
4. A Prison Valentine
History’s first valentine was written in perhaps one of the most unromantic places conceivable: a prison. Charles, Duke of Orleans wrote the love letter to his second wife at the age of 21 while captured at the Battle of Agincourt. As a prisoner for more than 20 years, he would never see his valentine’s reaction to the poem he penned to her in the early 15th century.
5. The opposite of Valentine
During the Victoria Era, those who didn’t want the attention of certain suitors would anonymously send “vinegar valentines." According to Smithsonian, these cards, also called penny dreadfuls, were the antithesis of customary valentines, comically insulting and rejecting unwanted admirers.
(Source: History.com)
Spread Love Today
Despite these weird and even morbid facts about this annual day for love, I do hope you have an amazing day. Please share love with those around you - friends, family and coworkers. You just might make their day!
You can also spread some love by getting someone the gift of art!
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