Valentine's Day

How it's celebrated in the UK and the legend of how it started

Photo by Laura Ockel on Unsplash

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Hello and Happy Valentine’s Day!

February 14th is Valentine’s Day in the UK and in many other countries. This is a day when we celebrate love and romance. Let me tell you a bit about what we do in the UK.

On this day, people often send cards containing romantic messages. Traditionally, people don’t write their name inside the card and they put a question mark instead, or they write “from your Valentine”. Most of the time, people know who the card is from anyway but you might get a card from an anonymous secret admirer on Valentine’s Day!

Popular gifts include chocolates, jewellery and flowers, especially red roses. People give these gifts to their partners or loved ones. Many couples go out for a romantic dinner or they celebrate at home with a special meal.

But how did Valentine’s Day start? Nobody knows for sure but there’s one popular legend about a Roman priest called Valentine. The Roman Emperor didn’t allow his soldiers to get married. This was because he needed as many soldiers as he could get and he didn’t want them to leave the army to stay with their wives and families.

But Valentine performed marriages in secret. Eventually, he was caught and put in prison, where he became friends with the jailer’s daughter. Some stories say that she was blind and he healed her. Before he was put to death for disobeying the Emperor, the legend says that he wrote the jailer’s daughter a note signed “From your Valentine”. He was executed on February 14th in or around the year 270 AD.

This story has changed and developed over the years. There are other stories that say he was put to death because he was a Christian. There definitely was a Valentine from Rome who was executed but the rest of the story may just be a legend.

In the past, Valentine’s Day was celebrated by the church but nowadays, any religious meaning has been forgotten by most people and it has become a purely commercial holiday. Wikipedia says that British people spend £1.3 billion on cards and gifts every year.

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If you enjoy reading about life in Britain and would like to know more, my e-book, “A Year in England”, would be perfect for you! You can buy it here.

See you next week!

Katie

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