Valentine's Day, also known as Valentine's Day, has spread from Anglo-Saxon countries as a celebration of lovers.
Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day, also known as Valentine's Day, has spread from Anglo-Saxon countries as a celebration of lovers. It is named after Saint Valentine (or Valentine), the patron saint of lovers. It does not have much of a cult following in the domestic church world, but since the 1990s it has become known and popular as Valentine's Day. On this day, couples in love send love messages to each other or give gifts to their beloved. (For gift ideas, click here.)
Story from
The origin of the Christian custom is that St Valentine, Bishop of Terni, became the patron saint of engaged couples and newlyweds in England and France in the 14th century. It was based on a story about the saint. According to this story, before he was executed for his Christian faith under the Emperor Claudius II, Valentine used the power of his faith to restore sight to his daughter, who was blinded in prison. Before he was executed on 14 February, according to tradition, he sent a farewell message to her, signed, "Yours, Valentine."
Valentine's Day in Hungary
It is little known that among the Germans in Hungary, Saint Bálint was very popular and was often depicted. Bóly has the only chapel dedicated to St. Bálint in Hungary, and the ceiling of the church of St. Elisabeth in Töttös near Bóly still bears a fresco of Bálint. According to popular tradition, if the weather is cold and dry on Valentine's Day, the harvest will be good. It was believed that sparrows would choose a mate on Valentine's Day, or that migrating wild pigeons would return. There were areas where it was customary to feed the birds on this day.
Valentine's Day in the world
In the Anglo-Saxon world, the popularity of Valentine's Day dates back to the poem "The Parliament of Birds" by the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer, which was probably written for the first performance of the Valentine's Day celebrations at the court of King Richard II in 1383. The poem is about how the birds gather around Trias, the goddess of nature, on this particular day, so that they may each find a mate. Since the late 15th century, there have been Valentine couples in England who send each other small gifts or poems. In Shakespeare's play Hamlet, the mad Ophelia in his song tells of St Valentine's Day, the night she went to him and came out of him no longer a maiden.
English emigrants took Valentine's Day customs with them to the United States. During the Second World War, American soldiers spread the custom to Europe, including Germany. In 1950, the first Valentine's Day ball was held in Nuremberg. It was then that Valentine's Day was officially introduced. It became widely known through advertisements by florists and the confectionery industry. In the meantime, candy packages, cards and perfumes were introduced, but flowers remained the most important gift. While during the year it is mainly women who buy flowers, on Valentine's Day men are in the majority.
The Japanese custom is different from the West. On 14 February, ladies give chocolates to their beloved, but also to their male colleagues and acquaintances. A month later (White Day), they receive a biscuit in return.
Europe has its own traditions. In Italy, lovers usually meet on bridges or by rivers and lakes. In these places, there are facilities for storing bicycles, but it is not the bicycles that young Italians lock up, they simply lock the padlock itself onto the facilities and write their initials on it, with larger padlocks having the couple's photo on them. Once the padlock is closed, the couple throw a key into the water and make a wish. These wishes are not to be revealed, but it is suspected that what they wish for is eternal love. More and more padlocks are piling up in a big knot.
Traditions, folklore and superstitions related to Valentine's Day
- If girls went to the cemetery at midnight on the night before St. Valentine's Day, they could see their future husbands. The laurel leaf placed under their pillow was also to tell them who their future mate would be in their sleep.
- Once they had the "candidate", they had to use other tricks to seduce the boy. After eating an apple with exactly nine seeds, the seeds had to be smuggled into the pocket of the chosen man, by which love was almost certain. Another method was to bury the footprints of the chosen boy in the snow or mud under the doorstep and lure him into the house, where he would soon propose to her.
- It was also on this day that girls and young wives could find out about the coming childbirth. For example, by counting the seeds of an apple cut in half, it was possible to predict how many children someone would have.
- Birds also played a big role on Valentine's Day, with different species representing different types of men. It was believed that if an unmarried girl saw a sparrow on this day, she would marry a poor man and be very happy, but if a tengelice flew overhead, she would be married to a wealthy man.
- There are also simpler superstitions associated with Valentine's Day, such as a loving kiss in the morning brings good luck and that on this day you should not be offended or angry.
