Random Pips

The day of love and romance is upon us! Y’know, we always say “Happy Valentine’s Day!” to one another, but never really think about what it’s all about. I mean really, who is this St. Valentine character?

I had always assumed that he was a master manipulator of love with “The Game” down pat. But that was just an assumption, which bugged me because I don’t like assumptions. And we all know what happens when we assume: we’re usually wrong (you so thought I was going to do the “makes-an-ASS-out-of-U-and-ME” joke, didn’t you? Assumption strikes someone out again!).

So I did a little research on the oh-so-convenient Wikipedia and it turned out that I really was wrong. Surprise! St. Valentine was actually a martyr (which makes sense…since most saints were martyrs who eventually moved the Church to canonize them years after their sacrifices). However, the most shocking fact is that he never had anything to do with love whatsoever. The only reason his day became associated with love is due to the fact that a certain English king and a girl decided to marry each other on that day, which was recorded in a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer. From that day on, February 14th became the day of love and romance. Later examinations of Chaucer’s poem revealed that it was more likely that he was referring to the date of May 2nd, which was the saints’ day for the “Valentine of Genoa” (for there were differing opinions as to which Valentine was the genuine Valentine). But by then, it was already too late to make a correction because, let’s face it, May 2nd just doesn’t feel as romantic as February 14th somehow.

I must also point you to the riveting tidbit that the royal couple who married on that fateful day was not even close to our current society’s legal age at the time - His Majesty was 13 while his beloved was 14. That’s right, they were barely legal (there’s a great song by The Strokes with that title, by the way). Of course, this was not unusual back then but it does set an interesting tone for Valentine’s Day: love is ubiquitous and it can blossom at an age where the fatal disease known as “cooties” still runs rampant.

Well well, so we learned something new about this special day. Now, go on out and breathe in the love that’s fluttering in the air. Who knows, this may be our lucky day!