Page 31 - LUDLOW TOWER FEB 22 (WEBSITE)

St Valentine’s Day - old and new
A little bit of history
Saint Valentine’s Day, many believe, was
named after one or more Christian
martyrs and was established by Pope
Gelasius 1 in 496 AD. Valentine of Rome
was martyred about 269, and this day
usually ‘belongs’ to him.
The idea of seeking a partner on St
Valentine’s Day may be a surviving scrap
of the Roman Lupercalia festival, in mid-
February, when it was a popular custom
for young men to draw the name of a
young unmarried woman from a name-
box. The two would then be partners
or ‘sweethearts’ during the celebrations.
The first recorded association of the day
with romantic love (1382) is from
Geoffrey Chaucer. In a poem written
for the first anniversary of Richard II’s
engagement to Anne of Bohemia, he
wrote, ‘For this was Saint Valentine’s Day,
when every bird cometh there to
choose his mate.’ Ophelia refers to
Valentine’s Day in Hamlet (1600-1601):
To-morrow is St Valentine’s day
All in the morning betime
And I a maid at your window
To be your Valentine.
The first modern mention of Valentine’s
Day can be found in a collection of
English nursery rhymes (1784):
The rose is red, the violet’s blue
The honey’s sweet, and so are you.
Thou are my love and I am thine
I drew thee to my Valentine.
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And a modern twist
Since 2012, 14 February, has also been
known as International Book Giving Day,
in an initiative run by volunteers in 44
countries to put books into the hands of
as many children as possible. At the
time the National Literacy Trust stated
that only one in eight children in the UK
owned a book - literacy is much lower
than we might expect. Covid lockdowns
have slightly boosted the amount
children have been reading, albeit much
of it has been online rather than on the
printed page.
However according to the latest
Literacy Trust report, published last year:
‘Some children and young people reported
that a lack of access to books (with schools
and libraries closed), a lack of quiet space
at home and a lack of school/peer support
had negatively affected their ability to read
and their motivation to read for enjoyment’.
With Covid restrictions and lockdowns
being re-introduced around the world,
getting books into the hands of children
is as important as ever. What better
way to mark St Valentine’s Day this year
than by giving a deprived child a book of
their own to read?
To find more
about how you can
help visit https://
bookgivingday.com
where you can
also download a
free printable
bookplate to use
with the books
that you give away.