Tuesday, February 14, 2012

St. Valentine

Who was St. Valentine? You may well ask, as there were apparently quite a few, and some were martyred. It all started way back in Roman times, but really only got going in 1590 with Edmund Spenser's famous line: "She bathed with roses red and violets blue, and all the sweetest flowers, that in the forest grew". This was embellished in "Gammer Gurton's Garland" of 1784 Nursery Rhymes: " The Rose is red, the violet's blue, The honey's sweet, and so are you. Thou art my love and I am thine etc".
Since then amazingly St.V-Day has spread world wide, with just about every country developing its own variation. However, in Saudi Arabia last year the sale of anything red was forbidden as being "Anti-Christian" or something, leading to a black market in red roses and so on. Weird.
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So today is supposed to be the day when the birds start mating, the roots of plants begin to grow, and Spring commences. In our own lives here, it is a day for getting together with good friends, sending electronic greetings, and having a singer come to entertain us with love songs....

4 comments:

L. D. said...

It sounds like you will have a great day. I liked the sequence of photos the past years. The last photo with landscape and sky is just marvelous.

FilipBlog said...

Good pictures, it is the first time I here this story about the birds. I only knew I had to take my wife to a restaurant.:-)

Greetings,
Filip

Michael and Hanne said...

Thank you Larry! You will see the results of our day tomorrow!

Michael and Hanne said...

You don't have to! You could take her to the movies and sit on the back row.....