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February 14 is Valentine's Day – a day when children give Valentine cards to their friends and adults send traditional greeting cards and Valentine's ecards. The story of how this tradition started goes way back in history to the third century when Saint Valentine was martyred because he would not give up his Christian religion. He sent a farewell note to his friend, his jailer's daughter to be exact, and signed it “From your Valentine”. A few centuries later, the date became the day on which Christians honored this saint as St. Valentine's Day.
Valentine's Day (http://www.care2.com/send/catvalentine1.html) became a day for lovers and on this day men and women sent anonymous notes to their loved ones. It became a day of celebrating love and friendship with parties and festivities of all kinds. Each country had its own traditions. In England, children dressed in adult clothing and went from home to home singing short love songs. In Wales, the tradition was to give gifts of wooden spoons decorated with hearts. Keys and keyholes became popular decorations meaning that the key would unlock one's heart.
Some Valentine's traditions throughout the world gave rise to common sayings that we use today. For example the saying “to wear your heart on your sleeve” means that you are telling everyone how you feel about a person. This saying dates back to the Middle Ages and the custom of choosing the name of your Valentine from a hat and wearing that person's name on your sleeve for a week. There are also superstitions associated with Valentine's Day. If a single woman sees a dove flying overhead on that day, this is supposed to mean that she will marry a sailor. It the bird was a sparrow, then she would marry a poor man.
A lady by the name of Esther Howland in the United States is credited with sending the first traditional Valentine's Day greeting card. In the 1880's the first greeting cards for this occasion were mass produced and sold in stores. Today there are all kinds of greeting cards for this special day with poems and verses devoted to love and friendship.
Valentine ecards were the first electronic greeting cards to be sent by email. This is a recent phenomenon spurred on by the use of email to send messages and communicate with people both near and far away. These first electronic greeting cards were first sent in 1995 depicting scenes of wildlife and nature. By 1996, the practice had become so common that Valentine's ecards were prepared by two sites on the Internet: http://Infobahn.com and Sony Entertainment. This started what has now become a very popular online industry with free and subscription sites you can visit for greeting cards for all occasions.
While the traditional greeting cards for Valentine's Day are still popular and retail stores do fantastic sales on this date, the wide variety of Valentine's ecards (http://www.care2.com/ecards) makes it possible to personalize the greetings in unique ways. You can add your own message instead of having to choose a pre-written verse. Many of the sites offer talking texts and accompanying music with animation that is guaranteed to evoke laughter and smiles.
With Valentine's Day fast approaching, now is the time to start your search for the perfect Valentine's ecard for your friends and family. There is such a selection available online that you will find one to suit the personality of everyone you know.
What are the first few things that come to your mind when you think of Valentine's Day ? Cupids, flowers, candies, doves or hearts ? Well it is only normal to associate these with Valentine's Day as they pretty much are the most popular Valentine's Day symbols. There are various symbols related to Valentine's Day, and these Valentine's Day symbols often feature in the gifts and other tokens of love given out on February 14 or Valentine's Day. Cupid is numero uno when it comes to Valentine's Day symbols, but there are many other symbols of Valentine's Day which you may be interested to check out. So read on.
Red Rose
The red rose is as big a symbol of Valentine's Day as the turkey is of Thanksgiving ! Roses symbolize love, compassion, peace, friendship and romance. But when it comes to red roses, they sure stand for one thing—the intensity of your love and passion for that special someone. Now this would be interesting to note that if you rearrange the letters in the word ‘rose', you get ‘Eros'—the God of love (or Cupid). So rose is one of the leading Valentine's Day symbols that rule hearts every February 14. And apart from the color red, roses of other colors are also sent out on Valentine's Day to convey different messages.
Then the heart is the warmest Valentine's Day symbol because it represents love in its purest form. Giving someone your heart means giving him/ her the thing that is most precious and vital to you. In a nutshell, a heart symbolizes life !
Have you and your beloved ever been called love-birds ? Well, ‘love-birds' is a word often used to indicate couples deeply in love. Birds are an important Valentine's Day symbol as it is widely believed that birds find their mates on Valentine's Day. The Herricks have come to symbolize undying love. Doves on the other hand, are symbols of purity, humbleness and virtue. Pigeons and doves, it is said, mate for life and so are symbols of fidelity.
Ribbons and Frills
Ribbons and frills are the Valentine's Day symbols since the days of knighthood. It is said that maidens would give their beloveds (kings or soldiers) ribbons and frills before the latter went to war. The men used to keep the ribbons and frills with them while they fought.
Lace is also traditionally associated with love. How, you ask ? Well, in the past, if a woman liked a man, she dropped her lace handkerchief to send a signal to the man, and if the man picked it up for her, the feelings were thought to be mutual. Apart from lace, another well-known Valentine's Day symbol is the love-knot. Love knots have a series of intertwining and meandering knots without any beginning or end. These are the symbols of endless and eternal love.
Think of Valentine's Day and images of cute fat cupids and throbbing red hearts of various sizes are sure to dance in your mind. Why, you ask? Well, the cupids and hearts are the most powerful Valentine's Day symbols as you perhaps already know. The associations are so strong and deep-rooted that even a child will know it's time for Valentine's Day when he/ she spots cupids and hearts hanging in shop-windows and greeting card stores. The chubby cherubic being and that plush crimson riot of hearts sweep people off their feet irrespective of age and location. Such is the potential of these two Valentine's Day symbols—the god of love, Cupid and the indispensable pulsating organ within us, the heart. They create an instant connection without any medium of speech and they symbolize Valentine's Day—the day of love !
Cupid is the son of the Roman goddess Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. Cupid consequently became the popular god of love and it is believed that whoever Cupid strikes with his arrow, instantly falls madly in love. It is for this that the Cupid has come to be associated with Valentine's Day and has become the most cherished Valentine's Day symbol. For those who don't know, the Cupid looks like a little child with an innocent face, golden curls and blue eyes. He has a pair of wings and always carries a bow an arrow with him. So watch out for the Cupid…Valentine's Day is here and he may strike you any moment !
Now there you have the various symbols associated with Valentine's Day. So next time you pick a red rose for your beloved, or wrap a candy heart with a ribbon, do remember their symbolic connotations. That would ad more meaningfulness to your Valentine's Day celebration, wouldn't it ? And Valentine's Day would not have been half as special without the Cupids, roses, ribbons, laces, and decorated hearts around. So celebrate Valentine's Day with all the lovely Valentine's Day symbols and have a simply fabulous time !