She bath’d with roses red, and violets blew,
– Edmund Spenser (The Faerie Queene, 1590)
And all the sweetest flowres, that in the forrest grew
Romance and love — this is what valentine’s day honour and celebrates.
At least since the 14th and 15th centuries, when the 14th of February became associated with courtly love and the lovebirds of early spring. But despite the date’s association with romantic love in those centuries, it took people another 2 centuries to make it an occasion where they express their love and affection through flowers, cards and gifts.
Valentine’s day, however, comes from a rather dark history. I won’t give you a history lesson on how Valentine’s day originated, but I will touch on some points that might pique your interest. If you want to read into the entire history, just visit The History of Valentine’s Day.
Valentine’s day, formerly known as the feast of Saint Valentine (particularly in the old Calendar of Saints), originated as a Christian feast day in honour of two particular Christian Martyrs who died on February 14th. Most papers name these two Christian martyrs as the Valentine of Rome and the Valentine of Terni. The Valentine of Rome, who we most commonly refer to when we speak of the history of Valentine’s Day, died in AD 269. The Pope Gelasius 1 was the one who added the Valentine of Rome in the saints’ calendar in AD 496 to honour the dead priest.
Based on The History of Valentine’s Day, there isn’t much information on either Christian Martyrs since most documentation got destroyed. It is believed that they were destroyed during the Diocletianic Persecution in the early 4th century. That, however, doesn’t diminish the legends behind the day of Valentine.
The most common one we know is how Valentine was imprisoned and sentenced to death by Claudius for not converting to Roman paganism and instead tried to convert Claudius into a Christian. While Valentine was in jail, he performed a miracle and healed the jailer’s blind daughter, Julia. In the most recent legend, particularly that published by American Greetings and The History Channel, Valentine had allegedly written the very first valentine card to Julia — who was no longer blind — and signed it “From your Valentine” before they executed him.
Now the question I’m posing myself is; was it a love letter? Or was it one of those “Hey, I just heal you, now can you talk to Claudius or your father to get me out of here before I die?”.
I might be as gaga about Valentine’s day as the next girl, but I haven’t had the chance to celebrate it yet. But, I’m curious to know what your Valentine’s day looks like.
Do you have anything specific in mind?
Or will you be like me this year, and just spend it at home, by yourself?
Get in contact with me and let me know: Let’s get in Touch
Whether you are celebrating this year’s Valentine by yourself or with your significant other, a good romance book will surely make the day of the person reading it. So why not exploit this 50% off of my romance book Affair of the Heart, designated to create a romantic atmosphere?
Thrust into partnering with Detective Storm Ives, for the State law enforcement, Doctor Angelica Buar, a behavioural psychologist and divorced mother discovers this partner of hers is a Dominant and is left to choose if the erotic and dark world of BDSM is really for her.
Since it’s a special Valentine’s Day Promo, you can only buy the ebook version. Like that, no need to wait for shipping, cause that will take several days. Just buy yourself or your significant other an ebook copy of Affair of the Heart and forward it to them.
You will get the most information you need for the book when you click on the link Buy Affair of the Heart Now for $2.50, but I’ll give you a quick recap here.
You can only buy this ebook on Smashwords (code: JA83Q) if you want formats like epub, pdf, mobi, mobi(kindle), HTML and more.
If you buy through the Paypal link, you will only receive a pdf version of the novel. Once you purchase the book through Paypal, click on the ‘Return to Merchant’ button and it will bring you to the page where you can download the pdf format of Affair of the Heart.
I hope this helped and wasn’t awfully long.
Happy Valentine’s Day.
Lady Lavinia Dasani
