Valentine's Day is Approaching

A vintage card by Esther Howland, circa 1875

Now that the Christmas celebrations have passed and we are recovered from sending and receiving cards, Valentine's Day is upon us. I thought it would be fun to read about the origins of Valentine's Day and share them with you.

Apparently, there have been several martyrs in the Catholic church with the name Valentine. Both Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni lived and died before AD 300 and are buried in different parts of Via Flaminia. They are the Valentines that are officially honored on February 14. According to Wikipedia, 11 Valentine's Day were recognized by the Catholic church until 1969.

University of Kansas professor Jack Oruch argues that there was no link between romanticism and Valentine's Day until Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the Parliament of Foules in 1382. The poem was written to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II to Anne of Bohemia (both young babes at the ages of 13 and 14).

Valentine's Day was reinvented in the 1840s. The first mass-produced cards were created by Esther Howland (of Worcester, MA) around 1847. Her influence was so great that the Greeting Card Association began giving the "Esther Howland Award for a Greeting Card Visionary" annually in 2001. We all know the effect of her mass-produced cards on the industry today; an estimated 1 billion Valentine's Day cards are sent, 85% being purchased by women.

More authentic Valentine's Day cards can be found at http://www.emotionscards.com/museum/vals.html.