Valentines Day Gifts: A Brief History
Valentines Day falls on February 14th and is the traditional day that lovers send each other Valentine’s gifts or cards that are often anonymous. Of course more recently the holiday and tradition of gift giving has expanded to include friends and family members as well.
The holiday itself is named after two Christian martyrs named Valentine. Though there have been other prominent historical figures that also bore the name Valentine, it is these two people that the modern holiday originated from. It wasn’t until the High Middle Ages that the Valentines Day tradition centered on romantic love.
The earliest surviving Valentine Day gift is a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife. The duke was being held prisoner in the Tower of London after his capture during ht Battle of Agincourt.
On Valentine’s Day in Paris in the year 1400 a High Court of Love was established to hear cases dealing with love contracts, romantic betrayals and violent acts against women. In this court of love. Women could choose judges to hear their case based on the poetry read by each prospective judge.
Valentine’s Day traditions were imported to North America I the 19th century. Around 1850 mass produced Valentines began to be created and given to loved ones. These were made of embossed paper and lace.
During the latter half of the 20th century Valentines Day gifts started including much more costly items such as diamond jewelry. This is also the period that generated the banal greeting of Happy Valentine’s Day with which the day is now pocked.
Those without a significant other sometimes speak of Valentine’s Day as Singles’ Awareness Day. When the Nickelodeon show Blue’s Clues attempted to refer to the day as Love Day a big controversy with the Catholic Church concerning the Catholic Saint Valentine ensued.
Though the modern tradition of classmates giving a Valentine card to every member of the class has been questioned as being somewhat inappropriate, the tradition continues to this day.
