LAST FEBRUARY 14h ... LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP DAY

Why Saint Valentine?

At around the year 260 A.D. Claudius the Cruel was the Emperor of Rome. Rome was going through many bloody campaigns and wars, and the number of soldiers was decreasing. Claudius needed soldiers, and he believed that men were not going to the army because they wanted to stay with their wives and children. So, he decided to cancel all marriages and engagements in Rome. Many people disagreed with this rule, and one of them was the good Saint Valentine.

He was a priest whom believed in love. He and Saint Marius aided the Christian martyrs and secretly married couples, and for this kind deed Saint Valentine was apprehended and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death and to have his head cut off. He was in prison for a while. Many young people went to the jail to visit him. They threw flowers and notes up to his window. They wanted him to know that they, too, believed in love.

One of these young people was the daughter of the prison guard. Her father allowed her to visit him in the cell. She helped me to keep my spirits up. Also, she agreed that he had done the right thing by having ignored the Emperor’s orders.

On the day Valentine was to die, he left his friend a little note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. He signed: "Love from your Valentine." It is believed that note started the custom of exchanging love messages on Valentine's Day. It was written on the day he died, February 14, 269 A.D. Now, every year on this day, people remember. But most importantly, they think about love and friendship.

Did you know that Valentine's Day started in the time of the Roman Empire?

In ancient Rome, February 14th was a holiday to honor Juno. She was the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans also knew her as the Goddess of women and marriage.

On February 15th, began the Feast of Lupercalia. The lives of young boys and girls were strictly separate. However, one of the customs of the young people was name drawing.

On the eve of the festival of Lupercalia the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man would draw a girl's name from the jar and would then be partners for the duration of the festival with the girl whom he chose. Sometimes the pairing of the children lasted an entire year, and often, they would fall in love and would later marry.

9 COOL QUOTES ABOUT LOVE

1. "Love doesn't make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile."
Franklin P. Jones.

2. "Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired."
Robert Frost.

3. "At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet."
Plato

4. "If you have it, you don't need to have anything else, and if you don't have it, it doesn't matter much what else you have."
Sir James M. Barrie.

5. "Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence."
Henry Louis Mencken

6."Love is a friendship set to music."
E. Joseph Cossman

7. "Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination."
Voltaire

8. "Like the measles, love is most dangerous when it comes late in life."
Lord Byron

9. "To get the full value of joy, you must have someone to divide it with."
Mark Twain