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A Brief History of Valentine's Day

Legend has it that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young, single, men--his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered Claudius ordered that he be put to death.

In 498 A.D., Pope Gelasius declared February 14th as St. Valentine's Day. The holiday began to be popularly celebrated in Great Britain around the seventeenth century. By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers in all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes.

In the 1840's, Esther A. Howland began to sell the first mass-produced valentines in America.

I found this in the Kenyon bookstore and thought it was interesting. Happy Valentine's Day.

I talked with my brother today on the phone. It made my day! He sounded like he was really doing well. I'm so excited to see what God has for him in the future. Riley asked him if there were big kids at his school. It made us both laugh.

I'm really into collecting books for my kids right now. We're developing a pretty awesome children's library. Between Christmas and Valentine's day we've acquired several Caldecott Medal and Honor books. I love watching them "read." Even Trey already really enjoys books. Riley's very favorite right now is In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak. Trey loves lift the flap books and his new book from mommy for Valentine's Day, Counting Kisses by Karen Katz.

Not much else is going on...looking forward to hanging out with my mom quite a bit this week while dad is at market. Also looking forward to mom's night out on Thursday.

back to work...