Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
95
ST
VALENTINE'S
DAY.
"The
day's
at
hand,
the
young,
the
gay,
The
lover's
and
the
postman's
day,
The
day
when,
for
that
only
day,
February
turns
to
May,
And
pens
delight
in
secret
play,
And
few
may
hear
what
many
say."
--LEIGH
HUNT.
The
customs
of
St
Valentine's
day
have
no
direct
connection
with
the
saint
whose
name
has
been
borrowed
to
designate
the
festival
of
the
14th
of
February.
It
is
only
by
a
side-light
that
any
connection
between
the
saint
and
the
custom
can
be
traced.
In
ancient
Rome
certain
pagan
feasts
were
held
every
year,
commencing
about
the
middle
of
February,
in
honour
of
Pan
and
Juno,
on
which
occasions,
amid
other
ceremonies,
it
was
the
custom
for
the
names
of
young
women
to
be
placed
in
boxes,
and
to
be
drawn
for
by
the
men
as
chance
might
decide.
Long
after
Christianity
had
been
introduced
into
Rome,
these
feasts
continued
to
be
observed,
the
priests
of
the
early
Christian
Church
failing
in
their
attempts
to
suppress
or
eradicate
them.
Adopting
a
policy
which
has
served
missionaries
in
other
quarters
of
the
globe,
the
priests,
while
unable
at
once
to
destroy
the
pagan
superstitions
with
the
obscene
observances
by
which
they
were
accompanied,
endeavoured
to
lessen
their
vicious
character,
and
to
bring
them
more
into
harmony
with
their
religion;
and
one
step
in
this
policy
was
the
substitution
of
the
names
of
the
saints
for
those
of
young
women
previously
used
in
the
lotteries.
Now
it
happened
that
the
fourteenth
day
of
February
was
the
day
set
apart
for
the
commemoration
of
the
saint
named
Valentine;
and
as
the
feasts
referred
to
commenced,
as
has
been
seen,
in
the
middle
of
February,
a
connection
would
seem
to
have
been
set
up
between
the
lotteries
of
the
pagan
customs
(carried
down
to
the
time
when
Valentines
were
drawn
for)
and
the
saint's
festival,
merely
through
a
coincidence
of
days.
That
St
Valentine
should
have
been
selected
as
the
patron
of
the
custom
known
to
us
nowadays,
is
too
unlikely,
knowing
as
we
do
from
history
something
of
his
life
and
death.
He
was
a
priest
who
assisted
the
early
Christians
during
the
persecutions
under
Claudius
II.,
and
who
suffered
a
cruel
martyrdom
about
the
year
270,
being
first
beaten
with
clubs,
and
then
beheaded.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
