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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2008 |
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2009 |
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2010 |
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2011 |
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....