Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Happy Valentine’s Day!
February 14th, it’s a day for romance, love, chocolate, flowers, and of course those hand written cards or love notes. It’s Valentine’s Day.
The history of Valentine’s Day

The original idea for Valentine’s Day had nothing to do with romantic love, chocolates or flowers. Instead, it was a religious event, created by early Christians in honor of a priest who was known as Valentine of Rome.

Claudius the Cruel, as he is now called by historians, was Emperor of Rome at that time. He imprisoned Valentine because he had been secretly marrying men and women who wanted to be together as husband and wife, against the Emperor’s wishes.

Valentine also tried to help people who were falsely or wrongly imprisoned, which of course upset the Roman dictator.

St. Valentine, as he would later become known, was buried on February 14th after he was executed by direct order of Claudius the Cruel.

Why Valentine?
St. Valentine was a widely revered and loved priest. As Christianity began to overtake and expedite the fall of the Roman Empire, Valentine married countless couples in secrecy after the Emperor had forbidden men and women to marry.

At that time around 265-269 A.D., Rome faced grave military situations. Its once vaunted army was in tatters, and more and more men were forced to fight in a cause they no longer believed in.

To try and "fix" this problem, Claudius the Cruel outlawed all marriages between men and women, which was one of the dumbest decisions any ruler ever made.

Thankfully, today’s tradition of Valentine’s Day is far more civil and is based around love, kindness and giving.

St. Valentine would be honored.