Valentines Day…A Few Fun Facts

“I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach.” -Elizabeth Barrett Browning

You all know I couldn’t let Valentines Day go by without some Valentine Fun Facts! So here are a few sweet treats for you this Valentines Day:

Saint Valentine’s Day was established in 496 AD by Pope Gelasius to honor  the Christian martyr Saint Valentine.

 

Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages, when lovers said or sang their Valentines. Written Valentines began to appear after 1400.

 

Symbols associated with Valentine's Day include: love knots; hearts, cupids.

Cupid, that sweet mischievous little guy is the most famous valentine symbol. Who doesn’t love a chubby little winged child with a bow and arrow!

In ancient Greece he was known as Eros, the young son of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. To the Roman's he was Cupid, and his mother was Venus.

The symbol of the heart is an ancient one, and difficult for historians to trace.

Perhaps the first known use of the heart shape comes from the 7th

century BC, in Cyrene. In that city, at that time, Silphium was a

plant so highly prized for it's use as birth control that it became

extinct. The seeds of Silphium were shaped like hearts, however,

making historians believe that the heart shape we know today was based

upon this early form of birth control. ….Hummmm

  The Love Knot is a stylized knot regarded as a symbol of the constancy of two lovers. Also called lovers' knot, modern western knotting literature has the name for these related knots deriving from stories or legends in which the knots symbolize the connection between a couple in love.

 

Enjoy Valentines Day….eat some chocolate  and watch out for Cupids Arrow!