BRITISH AND AMERICAN FESTIVITIES. VALENTINE'S DAY

On 14 February lovers celebrate Valentine's Day. People in love give each other cards and presents: flowers — especially roses — chocolates or jewellery. In the evening there are special parties, and couples sometimes go to restaurants for a romantic dinner. In New York City on the top of the Empire State Building there are red lights on Valentine's Day.

Where does Valentine’s Day come from?

The ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia was on 15 February.

On this day young men took the names of young women out of a vase. The couples formed in this way stayed together until the next Lupercalia. As usual, the Christian Church wanted to replace pagan festivals with Christian festivals. So, at the end of the fifth century Pope Gelasius created St Valentine's Day on 14 February.

Nobody knows exactly who Valentine was. There are three possibilities! Some people think he was a Christian priest when Claudius II was the Roman emperor. When he needed a lot ofsoldiers for his army Claudius did not permit marriages, but Valentine performed marriages secretly. The authorities discovered this, and executed him in AD 270. There were another two Valentines in the third century: the Romans executed them

because they were Christians. A legend says that one of them fell in love with the daughter of the prison keeper. Before his execution he wrote a letter to her: he signed it 'from your Valentine'.

Valentine’s Cards

European immigrants took the Valentine tradition to America.

They made beautiful Valentine's cards. On the outside of the cards they painted butterflies, flowers, cupids and hearts and on the inside they wrote original poems. In 1847 an American, Esther Howland, created the first commercial cards: people could then buy cards in shops.

Today few people make Valentine's cards: they buy them. Most cards are romantic, but some are humorous. In America many people also send cards to parents, relatives and friends as a sign of friendship. In Great Britain this is not common; Valentine's cards are for lovers. However, the cards are usually anonymous — even between husband and wife! People don't sign their names:

they sign the card with a question mark, or they do not sign the card at all.

In the United States young schoolchildren take to school the same number of Valentine's cards as the number of children in the class. There is no name on the envelope, but each child writes their name inside the cards. On Valentine's Day childrenmake colourful red and pink decorations for their classroom, and

the teacher gives the cards and some sweets to every child.