Valentine’ Day Throughout History
The festival, which celebrated the coming of spring, included fertility rites and the pairing off of women with men by lottery. At the end of the 5th century, Pope Gelasius I forbid the celebration of Lupercalia and is sometimes attributed with replacing it with St. Valentine’s Day, but the true origin of the holiday is vague at best.
Valentine’s Day did not come to be celebrated as a day of romance until about the 14th century.
The day is named, of course, for St. Valentine—we all know that by now. But why? Who is this mysterious Valentine?
According to 'The New York Times', it's possible that the holiday is based on a combination of two men. There were, after all, two Valentines executed on February 14 (in different years) by Roman Emperor Claudius II in the 3rd century A.C.E. It's believed that the Catholic Church may have established St. Valentine's Day to honor these men, who they believed to be martyrs.
It's possible that one of these men, Saint Valentine of Terni, had been secretly officiating weddings for Roman soldiers against the emperor's wishes, making him, in some eyes, a proponent of love.
Another story involves the practice of writing love letters to your valentine. It's said that St. Valentine wrote the first “valentine” greeting to a young girl he tutored and fell in love with while he was imprisoned for the crimes outlined above. According to some, before his death, he wrote her a letter signed “From your Valentine," which remains a commonly used phrase to this day.
But these romantic anecdotes are only legends. So little historical information is known about the martyrs named St. Valentine that in 1969 the Roman Catholic Church removed the feast day from its calendar, though St. Valentine is still recognized as a saint.
Some historic details suggest that poet, Geoffrey Chaucer, was the first to link love with St. Valentine in his 14th-century works "The Parliament of Fowls" and "The Complaint of Mars”. Perhaps Chaucer invented Valentine's Day as we know it today.
At the time of Chaucer's writing, Feb. 14 also happened to be considered the first day of spring in Britain, because it was the beginning of birds' mating season—perfectly appropriate for a celebration of affection. In fact, Chaucer's "The Parliament of Fowls" is all about birds (ones that have human characteristics) gathering to choose their mates: "For this was on Saint Valentine’s day, when every fowl comes there his mate to take," reads one of the verses.
Why didn't Chaucer just write "For this was on February 14…"? Poetry aside, it would not have been the convention of the times. (Example: In the Catholic Church every day in the year celebrates at least one saint, and for a public who had no printed calendars it was easier to remember dates by names than by figures).
Whether or not Chaucer can be fully credited, it is true that he and fellow writer, Shakespeare, popularized the amorous associations surrounding the day. Soon, people began penning and exchanging love letters to celebrate Valentine's Day.
The mid-19th century marked the beginning of many of the commercialized Valentine's Day traditions we know today. Victorian men wooed women with flowers, Richard Cadbury created the first heart-shaped box of chocolates, and the New England Confectionery Company, or Necco, began stamping out an early version of Conversation Hearts. Also around this time, the "Mother of the American Valentine" Esther Howland, only in her early 20s, popularized store-bought English-style valentines in America thanks to her innovative assembly line process that made the elaborate cards affordable.
(Check out some of Howland's creations; They will inspire you to DIY your own Valentine's Day cards!)
https://blog...ness-of-love/
By the early 1910s, an American company that would one day become Hallmark began distributing its more official "Valentine's Day cards." The rest, of course, is history.
<3 <3 Enjoy Some ‘Ice Wine’ This Winter… And For Valentine’s Day! <3 <3
Ice Wine is a wine made from grapes that are left to freeze naturally on the vine before they are harvested. It has a pleasingly rich, sweet taste boasting aromas and flavors of several ripe tropical fruits such as lychee, papaya, and pineapple, among others.
Legend has it a German winemaker accidentally let his vineyard freeze over a couple hundred years ago and decided to make wine with the frozen grapes. However it began, ice wine is now part of the global viticultural cannon. Icewine requires consistent, reliably cold temps, which is why it’s produced in Germany and Austria as well as Canada, New York’s Finger Lakes region, and even Michigan. If the icebox weather doesn’t cooperate in any of these countries, the winemaker may actually skip wine season.
White Ice Wine Vs Red Ice Wine
Wine lovers usually choose between the full-bodied white wine or the extremely sweet red wine. White ice wine is made from white grapes and is typically light gold in color, with tastes of citrus and peach. On the other hand, red ice wine is made from red grapes and is typically pink in color with tastes of dried figs, candy, and berries
Though all variants of ice wine are sweet, they are perfectly balanced by the right amount of acid in them. This absolutely safeguards your love for wine!
To get the best ice wine experience by enjoying every aspect of this unique beverage, wine lovers ought to know how to serve it properly.
*** Tips For Serving Ice Wine Correctly ***
Icewine is often called a “dessert wine”, hence making it a point to chill this wine first for a few hours. Also, let your wine glasses sit in the freezer for an hour before you serve the wine.
Select large wine glasses to serve the ice wine. These should have a large bowl so that the flavors of the ice wine can be fully exposed to the air and appropriately released.
Chill the wine glasses and ice wine. Then fill the wine glasses only up to half of their capacity, allowing that plenty of air to interact with a large surface area of the wine.
----- Love The Painting, Shown Above? ------
Join us on Feb 6th to paint, ‘Over The Moon For You’
Come paint this romantic moonscape with your favorite Valentine!
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