Valentine’s Day

Yes, I know it was last Thursday, I did remember, and so did my beloved!Saint Valentine… or the Saints Valentine were all martyrs in the early Christian church; apparently there is a Valentine of Rome who was a priest and physician in the time of Emperor Claudius the Goth , a Valentine of Interamna (Terni) was a Bishop who also suffer under Claudius, – having his head chopped off, and a Valentine from Africa who no-one knows anything about except he was martyred.

Geoffrey Chaucer first mentioned the tradition of giving love tokens, a tradition which must have been going on for a very long time; the idea of courtly love perpetuated it, but the little giving of little gifts and cards as marks of  affection has morphed into a massive multi-million pound industry of nicknacks and chocolates and cakes and everything you could possibly think of transformed into a Valentine themed spectacular… I suppose it helps keep businesses afloat in the doldrums between Christmas and Easter.