Why do ppl say Valentine's Day instead of St. Valentine's Day now?
144185
because it doesn't "flow" on greeting cards
149831
February 14 is Valentine's Day. Although it is celebrated as a lovers' holiday today, with the giving of candy, flowers, or other gifts between couples in love, it originated in 5th Century Rome as a tribute to St. Valentine, a Catholic bishop.\nFor eight hundred years prior to the establishment of Valentine's Day, the Romans had practiced a pagan celebration in mid-February commemorating young men's rite of passage to the god Lupercus. The celebration featured a lottery in which young men would draw the names of teenage girls from a box. The girl assigned to each young man in that manner would be his companion during the remaining year.\nIn an effort to do away with the pagan festival, Pope Gelasius ordered a slight change in the lottery. Instead of the names of young women, the box would contain the names of saints. Both men and women were allowed to draw from the box, and the game was to emulate the ways of the saint they drew during the rest of the year. Needless to say, many of the young Roman men were not too pleased with the rule changes.\nInstead of the pagan god Lupercus, the Church looked for a suitable patron saint of love to take his place. They found an appropriate choice in Valentine, who, in AD 270 had been beheaded by Emperor Claudius. \nClaudius had determined that married men made poor soldiers. So he banned marriage from his empire. But Valentine would secretly marry young men that came to him. When Claudius found out about Valentine, he first tried to convert him to paganism. But Valentine reversed the strategy, trying instead to convert Claudius. When he failed, he was stoned and beheaded.\nDuring the days that Valentine was imprisoned, he fell in love with the blind daughter of his jailer. His love for her, and his great faith, managed to miraculously heal her from her blindness before his death. Before he was taken to his death, he signed a farewell message to her, "From your Valentine." The phrase has been used on his day ever since.\nAlthough the lottery for women had been banned by the church, the mid-February holiday in commemoration of St. Valentine was still used by Roman men to seek the affection of women. It became a tradition for the men to give the ones they admired handwritten messages of affection, containing Valentine's name. \nThe first Valentine card grew out of this practice. The first true Valentine card was sent in 1415 by Charles, duke of Orleans, to his wife. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London at the time.\nCupid, another symbol of the holiday, became associated with it because he was the son of Venus, the Roman god of love and beauty. Cupid often appears on Valentine cards.
100218
The history of valentine's day is outlined here...\n\nhttp://www.pictureframes.co.uk/pages/saint_valentine.htm
70507
No.  It is a faux holiday designed to sell jewelry and greeting cards.  If we treat each other right every day we don't need a special day set aside to remind us to appreciate each other.
159932
We don't HAVE to celebrate Valentine's Day. There is NO law that says you Have to but it is a day inwhich one can express their feelings towards their loved ones. Too bad, we don't express these feelings each and every day, isn't it?
343115
During the Roman Empire, St. Valentine (one of the first Catholic saints) would marry couples under the Christian rites (forbidden at that time, reason for which he was martirized). That's why he's considered the saint associated with love. Feb. 14 is the date associated to him by the R.C.C.
52715
Its a day when u show ur significant other how much u love and appreciate them although u should be showing them everday but for the people who dont...why not take one day out of the year to just appreciate and love ur mate.
734660
Maybe because it's a Pagan holiday? Don't say it's stupid before asking him the details of why. I personally don't like how commercialized the holiday has become. It's not about spending money, it's about spending time with your loved ones. It's Jesus' birthday, not ours, so exchanging material is so very trife.
99513
Valentines Day in Chinese:\nChinese Simplified: 情人节\nChinese Traditional: 情人節\n\nDon't know which one you really wanted, so wrote both... :D
117123
Valentine's Day occurs annually on Februay 14. Modern day customs include sending greeting cards known as valentines to loved ones. School rooms are often decorated with lace and paper hearts. Gifts of candy and flowers are also common at this time.\n\nThe origins of Valentine's Day are uncertain. Many experts believe that it originated with Lupercalia, a Roman celebration honoring the wolves Romulus and Remus. During this festival, young men struck women with a goatskin hide called a februa. Receiving the blows was thought to make women more fertile and to ease childbirth. At Lupercalia, the names of all the young women in the city were placed in a box. Young men drew a name from the box and the couple would be paired until the next Lupercalia. Lupercalia was replaced with Valentine's Day by Christians.\n\nOthers trace Valentine's Day back to the rule of the Roman emperor Claudius II. In the 200's C. E., Claudius become frustrated when he had trouble recruiting soldiers into his army. Believing that the young men did not want to leave their wives and children, Claudius banned all marriages of single young men. However, a priest named Valentine disobeyed Claudius and performed secret marriages. Claudius found out about the marriages and sentenced Valentine to prison until his death on February 14, 270 C. E.\n\nMany historians believe the custom of sending poetic verse on this day originated with the capture of Charles, Duke of Orleans, during the Battle of Agincourt. From his prison cell in the Tower of London, Charles sent his wife a rhyming love letter.\n\nValentine cards became popular in Great Britain in the nineteenth century. Noted artist Kate Greenaway created cards which featured joyful children and beautiful gardens. Esther Howland was one of the first Valentine card manufacturers in the United States. Inspired by a British card, she began production in 1847. Her cards featured lace and paper flowers and leaves. Other card manufacturers emphasized Cupid, the pudgy, winged son of Venus, the goddess of love. In Roman lore, Cupid is known as Eros, the son of Aphrodite.
168508
valentine:\n<[After saint Valentine] \nWord History: Lovers and the greeting card industry may have Geoffrey Chaucer to thank for the holiday that warms the coldest month. Although reference books abound with mentions of Roman festivals from which Valentine's Day may derive, Jack B. Oruch has shown that no evidence supports these connections and that Chaucer was probably the first to link the saint's day with the custom of choosing sweethearts. No such link has been found before the writings of Chaucer and several literary contemporaries who also mention it, but after them the association becomes widespread. It seems likely that Chaucer, the most imaginative of the group, invented it. The fullest and perhaps earliest description of the Valentine's Day tradition occurs in Chaucer's Parlement of Foules, composed around 1380, which takes place “on Seynt Valentynes day,/Whan every foul cometh there to chese [choose] his make [mate].”
53045
The people who break up on Valentines day over a gift(or lack there of) are destined to break up anyway....Valentines is just an excuse.
116557
Actually the valentines day is an idea for commercial businesses related with gifts, greeting cards(both online and offline), chocolates, flowers etc. and most of the other special days like fathers day, mothers day, teachers day etc. are same.\nThough I arrange something special for me & my fiance in this day. have u ever listen the word "extra care". It's a day [14 feb] to take an extra care for your beloved one... nothing so special.\nThanks.
121571
This is the time for people to show their apperication to one enother and show how much they care. Most guys dont show how much they care about their girl so thats a good reason for V day. So people with gf, bf, husband and wives know that they love each.
145205
If it's midnight or later on the 14th, it's Valentine's Day. \n\n(I suggest you invest in a clock and a calendar.)
324281
carefully, very carefully!! saying you love someone is a serious thing, even though few ppl seem to respect that these days. when the time's right, you just tell them
888251
The Origins of St. Valentine's Day\n\nA quick quiz: St. Valentine was:\n\na)  a priest in the Roman Empire who helped persecuted Christians during the reign of Claudius II, was thrown in jail and later beheaded on Feb. 14.\n\nb)  a Catholic bishop of Terni who was beheaded, also during the reign of Claudius II.\n\nc)  someone who secretly married couples when marriage was forbidden, or suffered in Africa, or wrote letters to his jailer's daughter, and was probably beheaded.\n\nd)  all, some, or possibly none of the above.\n\nIf you guessed d), give yourself a box of chocolates. Although the mid-February holiday celebrating love and lovers remains wildly popular, the confusion over its origins led the Catholic Church, in 1969, to drop St. Valentine's Day from the Roman calendar of official, worldwide Catholic feasts. (Those highly sought-after days are reserved for saints with more clear historical record. After all, the saints are real individuals for us to imitate.) Some parishes, however, observe the feast of St. Valentine.\n\nThe roots of St. Valentine's Day lie in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, which was celebrated on Feb. 15. For 800 years the Romans had dedicated this day to the god Lupercus. On Lupercalia, a young man would draw the name of a young woman in a lottery and would then keep the woman as a sexual companion for the year.\n\nPope Gelasius I was, understandably, less than thrilled with this custom. So he changed the lottery to have both young men and women draw the names of saints whom they would then emulate for the year (a change that no doubt disappointed a few young men). Instead of Lupercus, the patron of the feast became Valentine. For Roman men, the day continued to be an occasion to seek the affections of women, and it became a tradition to give out handwritten messages of admiration that included Valentine's name.\n\nThere was also a conventional belief in Europe during the Middle Ages that birds chose their partners in the middle of February. Thus the day was dedicated to love, and people observed it by writing love letters and sending small gifts to their beloved. Legend has it that Charles, duke of Orleans, sent the first real Valentine card to his wife in 1415, when he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. (He, however, was not beheaded, and died a half-century later of old age