“From your Valentine.” A summary of a history of Valentine, its development and evident changes up to the 21st century.

Hello Nokviewers,

Welcome to my blog

The 14th of February is another day celebrated annually by individuals, couples, families and friends. It signifies the day some people show love either by giving or getting and call it valentine’s day. You know, like sharing flowers, candy, red rose, greeting cards, romance and all.

So today post is about valentine because February 14 is here again and there is a need to know more about the most celebrated season of love apart from Christmas.
Before going in too deep into the concept and history of valentine, let me tell you how I view it. I see valentine in a different light. To me, valentine is first about understanding the idea of agape and genuine love. It also means thinking about oneself and making sure you are in the right frame of mind and have your self-respect and self-love intact, because if you cannot love yourself, how can you love others or accept the love that people show you?
When self-love/respect is achieved to an extent, then you can go beyond thinking about the “I” factor, you become more engrossed in making other people feel loved, happy and calm and it goes beyond just February 14th. In other words, you stop thinking of oneself but others and show love to people. To some people, February 14 has been agreed upon as a day to demonstrate love to people around you, some take the love for granted, make mistakes and attached the day to a lot of sex. Anyways, I want to use this medium to say happy valentine.
NOK Views Love You.

Well, I have some questions regarding valentine which this post will try to answer, so if you have answers to these questions, feel free to leave a comment, like, share and follow my blog.
What is the concept of valentine?
Where did it originate from?
Who made the concept prominent?
Why so much attributes to red? Why is the color red attached to valentine? Red rose, packages covered in red etc.

It is believed that the idea and history of valentine was not really documented and the records available were ruined. What remains of the evidence trace the origin of valentine’s day to a man named Saint Valentine or Valentinus. Information on Saint Valentine’s life are scarce and what little is known was passed down and finally printed in the year 1260 in Legenda Sanctorum by Jacobus de Voragine, and in the Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493. Saint Valentine was speculated to be a priest in Rome or a bishop in Terni, central Italy .

During the reign of Emperor Claudius, there was and edict that prohibited young people from getting married especially soldiers. This edict was refused by Saint Valentine and he stood up for traditional marriage, secretly marrying soldiers to their young brides thus risking the Emperor’s anger. Emperor Claudius also demanded that Christians deny their consciences and worship pagan idols, this Saint Valentine also refused as he was dedicated to the ideals of christ. Saint Valentine was arrested, dragged before the Prefect of Rome, imprisoned and condemned to die.
Before his execution, documents show that Saint Valentine spent time with his jailer, Asterius, daughter Julia who was blind. He taught her about God, Rome and nature, closer to when his death Asterius asked Saint Valentine to pray for his blind daughter and she miraculously regained her sight. The jailer converted and was baptized, along with many others. Right before his execution, Saint Valentine wrote a note to the jailer’s daughter, signing it “from your Valentine.” Saint Valentine was beaten with clubs and stones, and when that failed to kill him, he was beheaded outside the Flaminian Gate on Feb. 14, 269 A.D.The origin of the use of hearts on St. Valentine day is believed to have originated for the act of Saint Valentine in which he cut out heart shapes from parchments which he gave to soldiers and persecuted Christians reminding them of God’s love and their vows.

In 496 A.D., Pope Gelasius designated Feb. 14 as “Saint Valentine’s Day.” This was to celebrate a martyr for standing for what he believed in and helped others believe and achieve through his actions. In c. 1393 known as the high middle age, the father of English literature Geoffrey Chaucer wrote a book titled “Parliament of Foules” in it he denotes that birds chose their mates in mid-February: “For this was Saint Valentine’s day, when every bird of every kind that men can imagine comes to this place to choose his mate.” After Chaucer, literature began associating Saint Valentine’s Day with courtly love. This eventually developed into the 18th-century English traditions of presenting flowers, offering confectionery and sending Valentine greeting cards.

The Development of valentine has been shown above from when Saint Valentine was killed to 496 AD when Feb 14th was designated Saint Valentine day. Chaucer’s work promoted the idea of valentine which developed in the 18th century into the traditions of presenting flowers . In the 21st century, valentine signifies the all that it represented in the 18th century with a little addition.
To summarize, although originating from the western world, valentine has become a global phenomenon. It is not a recent concept or celebration and overtime there has been evident changes in how it is perceived and celebrated. It was not at first the expression of love and was not really about romance which has changed in the 21st century. What is of utmost importance is the idea of love .

REFERENCE
Bruno Van de VLIET. 2017. The Story of Saint Valentine. Hebron Eco University
http://www.wnd.com/2017/02/the-real-history-of-valentines-day/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.history.com/.amp/news/6-surprising-facts-about-st-valentine
modified from nokview