CAN THIS BE WHAT WE CALL LOVE? VALENTINE THINGS

BETRAYAL! BETRAYAL!! BETRAYAL!!! TODAY BEEN THE 14TH DAY OF FEBRUARY VERY MANY CHRISTIANS WILL END-UP DISAPPOINTING GOD IN REMEMBRANCE OF A PAGANS ACTIONS: ON THE CONTRARY THEY DON'T HAVE ANYTHING TO REMEMBER OF JESUS, HIS DEATH AND RESURRECTION . I WOULD'NT WANT ANYBODY TO GET ME WRONG BUT WHAT AM REALLY DRIVING AT IS THIS, ALWAYS NO THE ROOT OF EVERYTHING YOU PRACTICE BEFORE DESIRING IT. PLS LIVE NOT TO DISAPPOINT YOUR CREATOR.

Jean Tanner/For Bluffton Today
Red roses, not necessarily covered in dew as this one is, are popular gifts on Valentine's D

Many of us don’t give much thought to how Valentine’s Day came about when we shop for that special card and box of candy, but there is some history that puts a slight shadow on a day that is now filled with heartfelt thoughts and gifts to our loved ones.

St. Valentine is the name given to three different martyrs whose feast falls on Feb. 14. One legend has it that the first St. Valentine was a Roman priest who went against an emperor’s order that outlawed marriage for young men so they could be better soldiers.

When he continued to perform marriages in secret, his actions were soon found out and he was sentenced to death. Before his death, the imprisoned Valentine sent the first valentine greeting to the jailor’s daughter and signed the letter “from your Valentine.” He was beheaded and buried in a cemetery named for him.

The second was another Roman bishop who was beheaded and the third was a little-known martyr in Africa. The only thing our modern day Valentine’s Day has in common with the lives of the saints is the feast day.

The several different explanations for sending cards and greetings of love tokens all are probably inaccurate, the most plausible answer being that St. Valentine’s Day is the survival of a Feb. 15 Roman festival where it was customary to draw lots to decide which young men and women should be valentines for the coming year. The couples would exchange gifts and sometimes even become engaged.

So it continues today that couples share gifts of flowers and candy on Valentine’s Day, celebrated February 14th.

It’s not just a couples thing, either. Special gifts are given to special people in our lives to let them know we love and care for them. One such special gift was one my mother Gladys Simmons gave. For each granddaughter and great-granddaughter, on her first Valentine Day celebrated in first grade, she would give them a white dress trimmed in red satin lacy hearts that she had hand-appliqued on it.

Valentine’s Day really became special to me when I was 5 years old and in the first grade. Mrs. Ruth Niver taught first and second grades combined back then, in 1945, at the original Bluffton High School that burned down in the early 1960s.

She loved art, so she had all of us color and create our own construction paper valentines to hang in the classroom. There were hearts of all sizes pasted everywhere.

She brought packets of small valentines from the dime store and passed them out to us a few days before Feb. 14 so we could write the names of classmates we wanted to give one to and drop it in the slot of a huge box decorated with valentines that she had made.

Finally the big day came and she had brought all kinds of goodies for the class to have at our valentine party. Excitement filled the air when she opened the big box and started calling out names to come forward to get their cards. She was one special teacher who wholeheartedly loved her pupils and left an everlasting impression on us.

As the years flew by and I grew older, Valentine’s Day took on a deeper meaning each passing year. The parties carried on through middle school into high school and on the Valentine’s Day a few months before graduating from high school, I had a special surprise.

I was proposed to, given an engagement ring and a box of chocolates. I accepted and after more than 56 years the chocolates are gone, but I still have the ring and the husband who came with it — so Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day, will always be a memorable day for me.