Their martyrdom was honored by the Catholic Church with the celebration of St. Valentine's Day. As the holiday spread, it evolved And in 1913, Hallmark Cards of Kansas City, Mo., began mass Around 498 A.D., Pope Gelasius declared Feb. 14 as St. Valentine’s Day to honor the martyr Valentinus and to end the pagan celebration. In 1849, Esther Howland of Worcester, Mass., published the first American valentine. Contrary to popular belief, Hallmark did not invent Valentine’s Day. Initially, Hallmark’s founder, J.C. Hall, began selling Valentine’s Day postcards in 1910. As greeting cards gained popularity, Hallmark began printing its very own greeting cards. By 1916, the very first Hallmark Valentine’s Day cards appeared on store shelves. February 14th: the Hallmark Holiday? Or rather, is it a saint’s feast day? Or, is it just a day set aside to express our love for others? Whatever the day stands for, it has been called Valentine’s Day since the fifth century. As the feast day of St. Valentine, the day’s history is murky. It was around 1913 when Valentine's Day literally became a Hallmark holiday. The card maker started to mass produce valentines and from that point the romance and commercialism went into overdrive. Valentine’s Day is not a modern, created-by-Hallmark-and-Big-Candy holiday. The first Valentine’s Day was in 496 AD, when Pope Gelasius I established a feast day to honor the martyr date of While many people scoff at the “Hallmark holiday,” the day actually has deep historical roots going back hundreds of years. Saint Valentine was actually a 3rd-century Roman saint, and along Pope Gelasius declared Feb. 14 as St. Valentine’s Day in 496 AD, and the rest is this history. According to Hallmark, King Henry VIII declared Valentine’s Day a holiday in 1537. Today, according to Hallmark, an estimated 145 million Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year, making Valentine’s Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year (more cards are sent Valentine's Day, which may also be referred to as Saint Valentine's Day, is celebrated annually on February 14th in the US. Initially, it was not a celebration of romance and true love and had a bit of a clouded past. Below are some of the historical facts about Valentine’s Day, celebrated in western culture as a public holiday. Saint Valentine’s Day: More Than Just a Hallmark Holiday. Saint Valentine’s Day, often dismissed as a mere “Hallmark holiday,” is steeped in rich history and tradition. While some may cynically view it as a commercial cash grab, others recognize it as a cherished occasion to celebrate love and companionship. 2 Holidays that have been referred to as "Hallmark holidays" 3 See also. 4 References. 5 Further reading. Valentine's Day; List of food days; References Pope Gelasius declared Feb. 14 as St. Valentine’s Day in 496 AD, and the rest is this history. According to Hallmark, King Henry VIII declared Valentine’s Day a holiday in 1537. Originally known as St. Valentine's Day, the main question is who was this patron saint, as there were at least three in existence bearing the name Valentinus, translated as Valentine. All three of these saints met an untimely fate but not before first accomplishing compassionate deeds that helped many other people. The original Valentine’s day was a celebration of St. Valentine and included a festival of feasts and lots of drinking. Saint Valentine was a saint in the 3 rd century who is associated with courtly love. But in little time, this Catholic and Celebratory holiday turned into a commercial opportunity for the Hallmark company. The first official Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, [1] is celebrated annually on February 14. [2] It originated as a Christian feast day honoring a martyr named Valentine , and through later folk traditions it has also become a significant cultural, religious and commercial celebration of romance and love in St. Valentine, a name that is synonymous with love and romance across the globe, lived at a time when the Roman Empire was at its zenith. He is often best remembered for the act of marrying couples in secret defiance of the Roman Emperor's bans. However, the truth about St. Valentine is far more complex, woven from a mixture of historical fragments, religious tradition, and folklore. This has It's called Saint Valentine's Day, after Saint Valentine (duh). It's an actual holiday that has been hijacked by commercialism to sell lots of chocolate, flowers, and cards (and fill up restaurants). Kinda like Hallowe'en. Mass-manufactured greeting cards were introduced in the United States in 1849 and sold by Hallmark Even priests use the holiday as an opportunity to to imbue St. Valentine’s feast day According to Hallmark cards, a whopping 145 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged every February 14 (and that’s not even including all those kids’ Valentines exchanged in classrooms!).
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