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Mrs. Bluezette's Grammar Guide
Valentine's Day
The formal name for today is St. Valentine's Day, but Valentine's
Day will do just fine.
"Valentine Day" and "Valentines Day" won't.
You need the possessive form, with the apostrophe, of this most
romantic of days.
Valentine's Day started during the Roman Empire.
Under the rule of emperor Claudius II, Rome was into one bloody
foreign war after another.
Ol' Claudius the Cruel, as he came to be known, had trouble getting
soldiers to join up. He figured the guys didn't want to leave their
sweethearts, so he cancelled all engagements and marriages.
Enter a Christian priest named Valentine, who began to secretly
marry couples. When the emperor got word of this, he had Valentine
arrested and thrown into prison.
On February 14 in the 269 A.D., Valentine died.
One account says Claudius had him beheaded after Valentine cured a
jailer's daughter of blindness. Another story says Valentine fell in
love with the jailer's daughter and wrote her letters that were signed
"from your Valentine."
It wasn't until a few hundred years later that Valentine's Day began
to develop as we know it.
In honor of his sacrifice for love, Valentine was made a saint, and
Valentine's Day replaced a mid-February fertility festival called
Lupercalia.
Valentine's Day greetings grew popular during the Middle Ages.
By the end of the 15th century, paper valentines (notice they are not
capitalized) were all the rage.
Mrs. B hopes you, and she, get one today.
Happy Valentine's Day.
