V Day

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you who celebrate it. Our family does, although not in the traditional way. We make cards for each other, and buy only one piece of chocolate for each kid. That's it. Maybe I'll make the kid's PB&J sandwiched in heart shapes today.

Here's some historical information on Valentine's Day from Wikipedia.com... You won't see this stuff on a Hallmark card.

Medieval and modern times

On St. Valentine's Day in 1349, roughly 2,000 Jews were burned to death by Christian mobs in Strasbourg. These mobs, led by nobles who owed large sums to

Jewish moneylenders (usury being a sin for Christians), blamed the Jews for poisoning the city's wells and causing the bubonic plague.[9]

Using the language of the law courts for the rituals of courtly love, a "High Court of Love" was established in Paris on Valentine's Day in 1400. The court dealt with love contracts, betrayals, and violence against women. Judges were selected by women on the basis of a poetry reading.[10][11]

The earliest surviving valentine dates from 1415. It is a poem written by Charles,

Duke of Orleans to his wife. At the time, the duke was being held in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt [12].

It is probable that the various legends about St. Valentine were invented during this period. Among these legends:

• On the evening before Valentine was to be martyred for being a Christian, he passed a love note to his jailer's daughter that read, "From your Valentine."

• During a ban on marriages of Roman soldiers by the Emperor Claudius II, St. Valentine secretly helped arrange marriages.[13]

Valentine's Day is mentioned by the character Ophelia in Hamlet: "Tomorrow is Saint Valentine's Day."

In 1836, relics of St. Valentine of Rome were donated by Pope Gregory XVI to the Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland. In the 1960s, the church was renovated and relics restored to prominence.[14]

In 1969, as part of a larger effort to pare down the number of saint days of purely legendary origin, the Church removed St. Valentine's Day as an official holiday from

its calendar. February 14 is now dedicated only to Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius.