Stuff

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Heart

But what does it mean?

As you can see by the date….  Happy Valentines Day!  Hope everyone is enjoying this day, in one way or another!  I would imagine that most people have no idea how Valentine’s Day actually became the holiday that some of us love, some of us hate and some of us could really care less about.  Right now I am somewhere between hate and could care less.

But, being a curious soul, I wanted to know why this day came into being, where millions (maybe billions) of dollars are spent on flowers, candy and valentine cards.  Where many a proposal is taking place on one hand and fights are erupting elsewhere.

I consulted the History Channel and lo and behold I got my answer….

The History of the Day

On this very day a mere 1734 years ago (278 A.D. for those of you who don’t feel like whipping out your calculators), St. Valentine, a holy priest in Rome, had his head lopped off by Emperor Claudius II (Claudius the Cruel, and some of his cohorts called him).  Why did he do this?  Well, he was trying like the dickens to get a stronger army, as there was lots of fighting going on (some things never change, do they) and apparently the men that he was trying to recruit had the audacity to want to stay home to take care of their families.

Claudius the Cruel

Well, good ol’ Claudius decided to make marriage, and engagements (which often lead to marriage and families) against the law.

Valentine thought this was horribly unfair, and decided to perform the marriages in secret. Well, Claudius found out and had poor old Valentine executed.  So sad…..

There are several other versions of this story, but I like this one, so I am sticking to it.

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