Valentine's Day

There are many stories of how Valentine's Day started, however, I shall tell you one of them. In ancient Rome, there was a man named Valentine. He was a priest. During his time, Rome was ruled by an Emperor named Claudius. Many people disliked him, including Valentine.

Claudius wanted a very big army and expected people to volunteer to join the army. However, many men did not want to leave their wives and children and thus very little people volunteered to join. This made Claudius very angry. He was so angry that he passed down a rule that no one else is allowed to get married. He thought that if the men did not have wives and children, they would not mind joining the army.

Many people including Valentine thought that the rule was ridiculous, but they did not have a choice. Therefore, Valentine decided not to follow the law and performed marriage ceremonies secretly. Once, when the ceremony was taking place, they heard footsteps of the patrolling soldiers. The couple managed to get away in time, but Valentine was caught and put on death sentence.

In his cell, however, he tried to keep his spirits up. Many young people threw notes into his cell to thank him for holding the marriage ceremonies and that they, too, believed in love. One of these young people was the prison guard's daughter. Her father allowed her to visit him in the cell and they would often chat for hours. She agreed that he did the right thing of ignoring the rules and holding the ceremonies. On the day that he was to die. February 14, 269 A.D., he wrote a note to her, thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. He signed it, "Love from your Valentine."

This has thus became a custom where young couples would write love notes to each other



http://thesituationist.wordpress.com/2008/02/10/crazy-little-thing-called-love-2/