Valentine's Day

Today is February 14, 2017. Valentine's day.

Valentine's day is one of my favorite days of the year! It's not like most holidays. Frankly, it's just a day that people use as an excuse to gorge on chocolate and complain about not being in a relationship (which makes no sense to me, seeing as the holiday is about marriage and it's not even supposed to involve single people, so get over yourselves) (and also don't think I'm being mean; I'm single, too).

But what about the history of Valentine's day? I know all about the history of Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Easter, April Fools. But what about Valentine's day? I was sad to realize that all I knew was that it was named after Saint Valentine, and he died. But I didn't know why, or when, or how that turned into a holiday about love!

I felt very ignorant when I realized that.

So. Below is a collaboration of what I learned about Saint Valentine and the origins of Valentine's day:

So apparently, there are three possible people who could have been the Saint Valentine. Most people believe it was the one that I'll be telling you about. If this was the real Saint Valentine (I mean, he was obviously real, but I'm talking about the Valentine's Day Saint Valentine), the story goes like this.

Saint Valentine was a priest who lived in Rome in the third century. Emperor Claudius the Second decided, one day, that young men shouldn't get married. Why? Because they made better soldiers that way (note that, to me, this never makes sense, no matter how many times I hear the story. How is the population supposed to grow, thereby creating more soldiers, if young men don't marry? Anyway, back to the story). So Saint Valentine saw this and realized it was evil. He conducted weddings in secret, marrying young men and women until the day he was caught. (Some sources I found said that he may have sent a letter to the jailer's daughter, signed, "from your Valentine." That's probably where the whole letter-sending thing came about.) Then, Emperor Claudius the Second (someone I always imagine to be old and mean) ordered that Saint Valentine be put to death! The date that he died was February 14th.

Apparently, this is a painting of St. Valentine. Huh.

There's a bunch of other historical stuff that has to do with Valentine's Day, but I don't want to get into that. Just know...well, just know that it's a holiday of love. So we should all make a special effort to love each other today! I know I will be giving lots of hugs. Hugs, as you know, are very nice. I am not a physical touch love language (it's the one I least connect with), but I will try as hard as I can to show love today! And if hugs is the way to go (physical touch is the most universal language), I'll try to be sincere with them.

This is just a cute picture of Chimpanzees. And they're hugging! Double the cute points. And the effective-photo-to-explain-my-point points.

Below is a poem, just for you! 

Dear reader, (if you exist),
I hope you smile as you read this.
I hope you grin, I hope you laugh.
Please spread the smiling on my behalf.
I hope that you'll love on this Valentine's day
I hope that you'll smile and hug all the way.
Please, my dear reader,
Please do not cry.
Try to be smiley
Please, please, just try.

Have A Smiley Day!