Before all of the commercialization of the day, it was much more sane--that is, as sane as love can be.
Also, as I was growing up, getting Valentines at school wasn't some kind of popularity contest.
Each of us had fun designing our boxes during art class, and we were each given a list of names to take home with us. That list contained the names of every one of our classmates plus our teacher.
We got packages of cute Valentines at the store and matched them with each classmate.
When we had finised doing this, we brought them to school and put them in the correct boxes.
Nobody was skunked when the big day arrived.
Each classroom had its own party, and we would then open our boxes and remove the loot, smiling, waving, and mouthing "Thank you!"s to our classmates as we came to the ones sent by each of them.
After that, we had refreshments.
After that, we would play games and would, eventually, go to the gym for the soc-hop. We weren't forced to dance (The younger boys mostly stood around, and we girls danced with each other. As we got older, we both danced with each other and danced with the more willing boys.).
When I was in fourth or fifth grade, our principal took a liking to the then-popular song, Blue Velvet, so we always played it for him, and he would pick a girl with whom to share the dance. Nothing romantic. He wasn't one of those teachers where we stood around and ogled him but, instead, an older, married man who was 57 when I first started first grade and 65 when I graduated from eighth grade--but he was one-of-a-kind (and I mean that in a good way)!
Many years before that, there was a nice man who had a wonderful garden and loved kids.
I'm not sure if he were married or single, but he liked having the neighborhood kids come over and play in his garden. Even more than that, he liked sitting out in the garden with them and telling them about Jesus.
Sadly, this wasn't allowed in his country, so he was arrested and ended up in prison--on death row, no less!
Up until his execution (by beheading), he and the kids still managed to secretly keep in touch through messages.
After his death, people began to remember him by sending messages to each other on February 14. I'm just writing this from remembering hearing this story, so I don't know what the significance of February 14 was--whether it was his birthday, execution day, or some other day.
But Valentine was eventually made a saint, and that is where this holiday comes from!
I hope I've given you--and others who might be reasing this--a more positive look at this wonderful holiday!
Blessings!
AJ wants U 2 meet The CanMan! |
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