Valentines Gift Ideas

Did You Know That…

…Valentine’s Day is the second largest card sending holiday of the year, second only to Christmas?

…Women purchase about 85% of Valentine’s?

…Valentine’s Day is also celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Italy, France, and Australia?

…In February 2004, $2.4 billion worth of jewelry was purchased?

While some things can be known about the origins of Valentine’s Day, one thing we don’t know for sure is just where or when we began celebrating amore, although there have been many stories told over the years. I’ve been reading a few of the legends and myths and I want to share them with you. I have my favorite. Now you pick yours.

The Stories About Saint Valentine

One story alleges that Valentine was a priest living in the 3rd century in Rome. His story is deeply enmeshed with that of the Emperor Claudius II (aka: Claudius the Cruel), who ruled Rome at this time. Claudius was involved in many wars around Rome, but he could not convince many men to leave their wives and families. His solution was to outlaw marriage and cancel all engagements. The men would then be able to focus on waging war. Valentine, believing this law to be unjust, began marrying couples in secret. When Claudius discovered what Valentine was doing, it is said that he had him executed.

Another story has Claudius killing Valentine for helping Christians escape the Roman prisons, where they were regularly beaten and tortured.

Yet a third story claims that Valentine was put to death for curing the jailor’s daughter of her blindness. She frequently visited Valentine while he was jailed. They were said to have fallen in love. In fact, Valentine may have originated the tradition of sending written avowals of love and romance. Prior to being put to death, Valentine allegedly wrote a letter to her, signing it “From your Valentine”, an expression we continue to use today. It is believed that he was executed on February 14, 269 A.D. Thus, Saint Valentine became both a romantic and a hero.

The Feast of Lupercalia

The Feast of Lupercalia may have been the first legend told surrounding the beginnings of Valentine’s Day. Lupercalia, a fertility festival celebrated on February 15, was a celebration to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture. Lupercalia was also a dedication to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. Lupercus was said to watch over the shepherd’s flocks, keeping then safe from wolves. The Roman priests would sacrifice both a goat and a dog to begin the festival. The goat represented fertility, while the dog symbolized purification.

The goat’s hide was then sliced into strips and dipped into the sacrificial blood. The men went out into the streets, gently slapping the women with the goathide strips. The women welcomed this gesture as they believed it would make them more fertile in the year ahead. Later in the day, all the single women’s names were placed in an urn. The bachelor men would pull a name from the urn. The couple would spend much time together over the next year and many of these pairings resulted in marriage.

The Feast of Lupercalia continued for centuries. As Christianity began to take hold though, the priests strived to replace the heathen practices by substituting the names of saints for the girls names. Those drawing from the urn would then aspire to imitate the lives of the saint whose name they had drawn. While the priests wished to abolish the pagan traditions, they sought to keep the festival flavor of feasts and sports. Thus, Lupercalia became Valentine’s Day.

Traditions Over the Ages

The origins of our modern valentines most likely date back to the early 1400’s. While he was a prisoner in the Tower of London, the French Duke of Orleans wrote many, many poems and valentines to his wife. Some of these remain and are on display at the British Museum in London. Flowers became popular gifts about 200 years later in France.

Americans began the tradition of exchanging hand-made valentine’s in the early 1700’s. Presently, every February, all across America, we celebrate our love and our loved ones on Valentine’s Day with gifts, flowers, candy, and Valentine’s greeting cards. Saint Valentine became the patron saint of lovers and we continue to celebrate the spirit of love and sentiment and good feelings.

Patricia Tomaskovic is the Owner of http://www.one-stop-gift-shop.com. We are a fully stocked online shopping mall with over 3500 items, offering a complete line of gifts for every occasion.

Cynics say that St. Valentine’s day is one big marketing ploy architected by the genius of Madison avenue to sell greeting cards and chocolate. Whether, this is true or not - love is a gift worth celebrating.

According to historians, Valentine’s day originated from a cruel practice, which goes back to the fourth century B.C., where young Roman boys would draw the names of girls from a box - like a lottery. The young boy would then make the girl, his sexual partner for the remaining of the year.

After eight hundred years of this cruelty, the church stopped the practice and looked for a suitable patron saint of love - St. Valentine was the answer.

There are varying stories on St. Valentine. Some say he was a bishop, who defied Emperor Claudius rule, forbidding men to marry. Claudius believed that married men made poor soldiers. Valentine ignored this rule and secretly married young men. When Claudius found out about Valentine’s action, he had him beheaded. Another story has it that Valentine was imprisoned and fell in love with his jailer’s daughter. Before he was put to death, he wrote a note and signed it “From Your Valentine”. The rest is history.

Now that you know the history of St. Valentine’s day, aren’t you ready to do a little something special for your lady or gentleman love?

Here are a few gift ideas, guaranteed to please your significant other.

Outrageously Fabulous Gifts. These are gifts that you will probably not give or get but are worth fantasizing about.

Travel

Nothing is more romantic than a spontaneous trip. Wisk your lady love or gentleman love away on a short holiday to Paris, where they can sample the wonderful culinary delights the French have to offer. Have dinner atop the Eiffel tower and take a boat ride on the Seine in the most amorous city on the face of the earth. If you are more Italian in your taste, then find yourself in romantic Tuscany, strolling the streets of Florence or sleeping in one of the dreamy hotels along the Grand canal in Venice.

If your love, is interested in wines, why not surprise them with a trip to California’s wine country.

Jewelry

You can’t go wrong with jewelry. How about a beautiful diamond ring, necklace or watch? To make the gift more meaningful, do as St. Valentine did and have the gift inscribed with something romantic.

Fantastic Yet Affordable Gifts.

Spa Get Away

There is nothing more sexy than feeling rejuvenated, relaxed and in a great mood. Spas can do this to you. Treat your significant other to a spa gift certificate so that they can indulge in a much needed rest and relaxation session. Popular treatments include Hot Stone massages, Therapeutic Swedish massages, facials, manicures and pedicures.

Dinner

Instead of waiting two hours to be seated at a restaurant, why not prepare a special dinner at home complete with a fancy table setting, flowers and a dessert such as chocolate covered strawberries.

To make things even more special, make your service worthy of a restaurant’s. Create a menu, identifying your appetizers, entrees and desserts. Buy a nice wine or champagne to accompany your dinner.

You can’t go wrong with any of these romantic do’s.

Visit http://www.dayspafan.com to find day spas in your community and for Valentine’s day gift ideas.
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The origin of Valentines Day is a bit on the murky side and nobody knows for sure how it came to be. Here, however, is what (we think) we know.

There are two parts to the story. First, a bit of history about the date, February 14th. It appears that this date, or one close to it, was used as a pagan Roman festival of Lepercalia long before it was named after St. Valentine. This festival, in one form or another, dates back to the 8th century BCE.

These roots sound simply barbaric today with the advent of womens rights and sexual equality, since one part of the festival called for a young man to draw a name in a lottery and the prize was a young woman that he would keep as a sexual companion for a year. We can only hope that the women put their name in the draw voluntarily! So how did the Festival of Lepercalia turn into what we know as Valentines Day? Lets turn our attention to Valentine.

The best guess is that Valentine was a bishop, or perhaps only a priest, in the 3rd century CE. This was a nasty time to be a Christian. The Roman emperors were not fond of Christians and spent a good deal of energy having them persecuted and killed. It was in this climate that we understand that Valentine lived.

There are two stories that are attributed to Valentines ministry. One is that he, despite the emperors ban, continued to preach the word of Christ even to the guards when imprisoned. The other seems more suited to the Valentines Day theme. Historians tell us that Claudius II was trying to add men to his army in order to expand the Roman Empire and the order was that all un-married men had to serve when asked. Claudius II decreed that marriage was to be banned and that all engagements were to be broken off. The legend is that Valentine defied this ban and chose to marry couples anyway.

Whether it was for preaching or marrying lovers against the wishes of the emperor, Valentine ended up in prison. Rumour has it that while he was there, he became very attached to the jailers daughter. Just before he was executed on February 14, 270, he wrote a note to the daughter and signed it ‘from your Valentine.’ A rather familiar greeting, isnt it?

So, just how did the festival of Lupercalia become St. Valentines Day? Well, by the year 469, Christianity had a pretty strong foothold and was working to replace pagan festivals with others more acceptable to Christianity. Pope Gelasius, it seems, was not fond of the lottery of a sexual companion that was part of the Festival of Lepercalia. So, he replaced the festival with St. Valentines Day. Many were very disappointed when the lottery was replaced by one of a very different sort. A lottery of the Saints was instituted and the men would now draw to get a Saints name and then emulate the Saint for the year. Popular as getting a woman for the year? Doubtful…

As it is with humans, the old and the new came together over the years. The Saints lottery was dropped, strands of the Festival of Lepercalia endured, and the pairing up of people through gifts of love came to be and is celebrated to this day, in the name of Valentines Day.

The Rev. Julia Ford is a co-owner of Gift Baskets of Canada with her partner and is Honourary Assistant at St. Dunstans Anglican Church, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.