This week brought the first real winter storm of the season, the kind that had people flocking to the grocery store to stock up on items in preparation for a “storm day.” While it ended up not really being a big deal, it did bring with it a day off from school and an unexpected mini-vacation, with the roads too nasty to do anything but stay home.
For us at the Sentinel, it was a slow workday, as we watched the snow pile up and eventually turn to sleeting rain, and we took the time to look into the history of Valentine’s Day.
The history of Valentine’s Day is somewhat muddled and shrouded in mystery. Like many other holidays, its origins can be found in ancient Roman tradition. For certain, we know that the day is long associated with St. Valentine, a third century priest who defied Emperor Claudius by performing marriages after they were outlawed for young men.
As a result of his disobedience, Valentine was imprisoned and sentenced to death. Legend has it that the sympathetic and romantic priest fell in love with a young girl who visited him. Before his death, he wrote her a letter and signed it, “From your Valentine.” By the Middle Ages, thanks to this legend, he would become one of the most popular saints in all of England and France.
The oldest known valentine still in existence today is a poem written in 1415 by the Duke of Orleans to his wife when, at 21 years old, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Sadly, the duke was never able to see his wife’s reaction to the letter as she died before they were ever reunited. The poem still exists in the British Library.
In this country, exchanging hand-made valentines began in the early 1700’s. And, in the 1840’s Esther Howland began selling the first mass-produced valentines in America. The rest, they say, is history.
Valentine’s Day is an opportunity to let people know you are thinking of them. In Greenwich, florists have been busy all week preparing and delivering arrangements and roses, and restaurants have been busy planning Valentine’s Day menus. We remember way back in elementary school when we had to send everyone in my class a valentine. Let’s get back to those days, but instead of sending out valentines to just our class, let’s send them out to the entire town. We want all of Greenwich to be our valentine.
They say Valentine’s Day is a poet’s holiday. Maybe that is because of the Duke of Orleans or maybe it is because we tend to wax poetic when talking about those we love. For us, it is an opportunity to tell our community we love them. This day, this week, this month, this year, always – know that this newspaper stands arm and arm with the community, asking it to be our valentine.
