He wrote, per one translation, “For this was on Saint Valentine’s day / When every bird cometh there to chose his mate.” A February 1477 letter in which Margery Brews of Norfolk, England, called her fiancé John Paston “my right well-beloved valentine” is considered the oldest known Valentine written in English (and is now housed at the British Library). Poets, most famously Geoffrey Chaucer in his 14th-century “Parliament of Fowls,” were the ones who put it together that the day fell right around the time of year when birds would sing their mating songs to get ready for the spring. It’s believed to be around that time, as notions of courtly love gained influence in Europe, that some celebrants found a more cheerful way of explaining why Saint Valentine’s feast day should be a time to think about romance. (Valentine’s Day in 2018, for example, fell on the same day as Ash Wednesday.) 2, as well as the carnivals leading up to the Shrove Tuesday and the beginning of the Lenten fast season, which often fall around the same time. Plus, the holiday fell right in the middle of a run of much bigger holidays, such as Candlemas on Feb. “Valentine was not one of the more important saints venerated by medieval people - nor was his feast one of the 40 to 50 festa ferianda, or celebratory festivals, which required people to abstain from work in order to fast and attend mass,” Sarah Peverley, a professor of English at the University of Liverpool, explained in a piece for The Conversation. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder.īut Saint Valentine’s feast day didn’t used to be a big to-do - which should please those who think too much is being made of it now.

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