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Was there really a St. Valentine?
More than you ever wanted to know about February. |
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| You can thank Numa Pompilius for February. Who the heck is he you ask? Even though he may sound like a soccer goalie, he was the second king of Rome and he's the guy who added February to the calendar, somewhere around 700 B.C. Our second month is kind of interesting. |
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The Romans used it as a flexible month to align the year with the seasons, so it may have had anywhere from 23 to 27 days. Later on, February was standardized into 28 days, with a leap year every four years, where it gained a 29th day. Yes, we're still playing catch up. The Gregorian calendar, which is what we use today, determined the rules for Leap Year, namely, any year that is divisible by four. The Anglo-Saxons called February Solomanth (mud month - they got that right) or Kalemonath (cabbage month - who knows where that came from).
February is packed with holidays: Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day, Presidents' Day and every four years, Leap Day, where tradition says women can propose marriage to men. February is also Black History Month.
Valentine's Day has an interesting history. Numerous early Christian martyrs were named Valentine, but the most likely candidates are either Valentine of Rome or Valentine of Terni. Over time the distinctions between the two were lost and today's St. Valentine could be either one of them. The legend is that Roman Emperor Claudius II supposedly issued a law forbidding young men to marry; married men didn't make good soldiers. St. Valentine, a priest at the time, secretly performed marriages, got caught and was thrown in jail. On the evening before Valentine was to be executed, he wrote the first "valentine" himself, addressed to a girl variously identified as his beloved, as the jailer's daughter whom he had befriended and healed, or both. It was a note that read "From your Valentine." In A.D. 496, Pope Gelasius I made it official and declared Feb. 14th as Valentine's Day.
Today, the tradition of sending "Valentines" is firmly established. Approximately one billion Valentines are sent each year, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas. It's estimated that men spend twice as much money on Valentine's Day as women. And here's a suggestion if you're really stuck on finding a Valentines gift for your sweetie that's a little bit different and a lot more memorable. Treat your significant other to a much needed service appointment. We would be happy to help! |
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