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Articles and Products of History Valentine's Day Traced Back.When Valentines Day rolls around each year what do you do. If you are single you probably grab a chocolate bar and enjoy a bit of sweet indulgence. If you are married you had better remember to get your spouse at least a card, and a box of chocolates. Valentines day is a wonderful holiday designed to show our significant others how much we love them.
Did you know that a Saint died for our right to do this? The story goes that in the third century there was a priest named Valentine. Now Valentine greatly enjoyed his job of marrying young couples. There was a problem however. The Emperor Claudius wanted to build a large Army. At that time the Army was volunteer and recruitment was very low. Claudius felt his subjects were unfaithful and UN appreciative of his generosity, so he started to force all the single men of his empire to enlist in his Army. The only way a young male could avoid service in the Army was if he was married. The increases in marriages was swift and dramatic, this caused the Emperor to make marriage illegal. As you can imagine young couples continued to seek out the services of priests to get married. It was at one of theses secrets marriages that St Valentine was captured by the Emperors troops. Valentine was imprisoned and sentenced to death. During his final days Valentine met the daughter of one of the guards and they quickly fell in love. The couple would spend hours in his cell discussing the ignorance of the emperor. Attempts were made to pardon Valentine but to no avail. The Emperor was determined to punish Valentine for his lack of respect. Death was the ultimate price to pay and on the day Valentine was executed he wrote a note to the jailers daughter saying: Love from your Valentine. And yes you guessed it; Valentine was executed on February 14. Further Reading
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