A Valentine Of Flowers
A common valentine on Valentine's Day is flowers. But what is the history of Valentine's Day and why do so many people send flowers as gifts for Valentine's Day?
Valentine's Day on February 14th can be traced back to a feast in the Catholic Church that celebrated Saint Valentine. The history of Saint Valentine is not as clear. One story of Saint Valentine said that he was in prison and fell in love with the jailer's daughter. He wrote her letters and signed them 'From your Valentine'. Another story says that a Roman Emperor decided that single men made better soldiers than married men and forbid his soldiers from marrying. Saint Valentine didn't agree with the Emperor's decision and continued to marry young lovers in secret.
Even before Saint Valentine there were signs to suggest the history of this day goes even further back in history. In ancient Rome, on February 15th there was a festival of Lupercus. This festival celebrated the god of fertility. Two men were chosen to run through the streets, after performing a sacred ritual, to slap women with goat skins soaked in blood. Women wanted to be slapped with these skins, because they believe that being touched with the skins would make them very fertile and they would have easy child births. This was considered a gift to women.
So what about flowers?
Well not all countries give flowers or cards on Valentines Day or on days that are similar to Valentine's Day, but most of them do give candy.
Flower giving was introduced way before Valentine's Day. The tradition of giving flowers as a gift was first heard in ancient Greece where people would give flowers to the gods.
The language of the meaning of flowers was developed when the French and English traveled to Turkey. Dictionaries on florigraphy were made in the 1800s. The dictionaries compiled drawings of flowers with their meanings and also described multiple types of flower giving and their meanings.
Giving flowers turned into a way to communicate your love and appreciation to a person. Naturally on a day that is about telling those close to you that you love them the communication of flowers began to be used.
When you give your valentine flowers you are keeping more than one tradition alive.