Valentine's Day came to our country a relatively long time ago. At the same time, the world history of Valentine's Day goes back more than one century. What is this holiday and why on this day they give loved ones cute cards-hearts with tender confessions.
Patron saint of lovers
The semi-legendary priest Valentin lived in the Italian city of Terni in the 3rd century. He became famous for refusing to deny Christ, for which he was beheaded. At the end of the 5th century, the church ranked Valentine as a martyr, and the day of his execution - February 14 - began to be celebrated as the day of remembrance of his name.
Over time, the saint's life was overgrown with legends. It was said that the priest secretly married the legionnaires of Claudius, who were forbidden to marry. In the Middle Ages, St. Valentine was already revered as the patron saint of lovers and ballads were composed in memory of him. At the same time, the custom arose to give the beloved words from ballads written on paper, signing "Your Valentine".
The first "valentines"
In the 15th century, young people gave their friends pictures of a lady and a knight with a heart pierced by Cupid's arrow. And three centuries later, homemade paper Valentine cards featuring hearts and Cupids have become a popular gift in Western Europe and the United States. The most ingenious carved postcards in the form of paper lace or other symbols of love: gloves, roses and doves.
By the beginning of the 19th century, a postcard with poems had become a common way to declare love. At the same time in England and Germany they began to make factory-made "valentines": from high-quality paper, trimmed with flowers, artificial stones, with gold and silver inscriptions, they were real luxury items.
English sailors, who had not seen their native shores for months, made valentines from shells, laying them out in the shape of hearts and flowers, and sent them to their loved ones.
Overseas, postcards with confessions gained popularity in the 18th century, when collections of love lyrics with texts that had to be written on valentines began to be brought to the United States. Esther Howland, a student, was the author of the first American Valentine. It happened in the 30s of the XIX century. The girl's father, who was involved in the book trade, brought richly decorated "valentines" from England. The active Esther stocked up on everything she needed and created her own cards for lovers, earning about $ 100 thousand in the first year. Over time, the design of valentines has become much simpler, and their production has become ubiquitous and massive.
