Happy Valentine’s Day!!
As most of us know, February 14th is celebrated by couples as a day for love. Although the exact origin of the holiday is not widely agreed upon, it is recognized as a day celebrating devotion and romance. It’s difficult to say exactly where the traditions started, since there are many stories involving saints but not much is reliably known. One story tells that Saint Valentine cured the blindness of the daughter of Judge Asterius of Rome. Another tells he was imprisoned for marrying Christian couples and aiding Christians being persecuted by the Emperor Claudius. Other depictions of St. Valentine’s arrests tell that he secretly married couples so husbands wouldn’t have to go to war and still another variation of the legend says he refused to sacrifice to pagan gods, was imprisoned and while imprisoned he healed the jailer’s blind daughter. On the day of his execution, he left the girl a note signed, “Your Valentine.”
Whoever he was, Valentine did really exist, because archaeologists have unearthed a Roman catacomb and an ancient church dedicated to St. Valentine. In 496 AD Pope Gelasius marked February 14th as a celebration in honor of his martyrdom.
The romantic nature of Valentine’s Day may have derived during the Middle Ages, when it was believed that birds paired into couples in mid-February. According to some scholars, Valentine’s Day was most likely created to overpower the pagan holiday, Lupercalia.
St. Valentine is the Patron Saint of affianced couples, bee keepers, engaged couples, epilepsy, fainting, greetings, happy marriages, love, lovers, plague, travelers, and young people. He is represented in pictures with birds and roses.
When pondering this day and what to get my husband, it occurred to me Valentine’s Day could be a day to celebrate not just the romantic relationships in your life but your other loves as well. I think as writers we have to love what we do. Very few people get rich, let along make a living, doing this. If we didn’t love it, why else would we do it? There’s something so deeply satisfying about stringing words together and once you get it right, hearing the rhythm and flow of a well-crafted sentence, paragraph, scene or story.
So I say, regardless of your relationship status, use today, Valentine’s Day as an excuse to celebrate this thing you love, the written word. And if you feel so inclined, light some candles, open a bottle of wine and sit down to a romantic dinner with your manuscript. If you don’t, who will???
Kristin Crump