Why is it that we celebrate Valentine’s Day? This is the most important day of the year for lovers and a gift to one’s loved one has enormous significance in our Western society. So who was he, this Valentine fella? Valentine was a Christian priest in Rome in the third century AD. At this time the Emperor Claudius was keen to enlarge the size of his army and decided that young men made better soldiers without wives and children to keep them at home. In an attempt to enforce this, he created a law banning marriages.

However, Valentine was fiercely against this as it was against his Christian principles and continued to marry couples in secret by candlelight. When this was discovered, Valentine was put in jail and sentenced to death, but he remained popular with the people and, to show support for him, many people visited him in jail and threw flowers and notes in his window. While in jail, he befriended the prison guard’s daughter and 14th February, the day of his death, he left her a note signed “Love from your Valentine”. Gradually, February 14th became the date for exchanging love messages and simple gifts such as flowers and St. Valentine became the patron saint of lovers.

In the Middle Ages, young men and women used to draw names from a bowl to see who their Valentine would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for a week. The saying ‘to wear you heart on your sleeve’ originates from this tradition as it means it is easy for other people to see how you are feeling. Flowers are traditionally believed to have different meanings, although these vary from culture to culture.