Happy Valentine’s Day!
February 14th, 2008 by Happy Hotelier
If you are able to read Dutch and have no idea yet what to do today, look at the Dutch site Verras Uw Partner or the Belgian site Verwen Je Partner.
“Verrassen” is Dutch for surprising your partner. “Verwennen” is Dutch for spoiling your partner.
Surprisingly both sites started in the same period last year.
History of Valentine’s Day
From the site Valentines Day Indianserver I learned:
Lovers around the world can thank a Roman priest for our celebration of love on February 14.
During the mid 200’s Emperor Claudius II of Rome banned marriages or engagements due to the difficulty of enlisting soldiers in the military. Valentine, a Christian priest, secretly married couples despite the emperor’s decree. Eventually, Valentine was imprisoned and put to death on February 14, 270.
As history unfolded and the Christian Church gained more power in Rome, the priests began to eliminate pagan festivals. Lupercalia, an ancient Roman festival celebrating fertility was replaced by honoring St. Valentine’s Day.
According to Wikipedia it was a poem of Chaucer on occasion of the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia (then 13 and 14 years of age) that started the modern days attention:
For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese [choose] his make [mate].
2 Responses to “Happy Valentine’s Day!”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Hi,
I was referred to your site by Darren of Travel Rants Blog.
You have so much great info. I’m now a fan and will begin digging through your archives.
Great site!
Cheers,
Kim
http://www.kimkinrade.com/wpblog
Hi Kim
You are most welcome!