Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day, the 14th of February, on which, in England and Scotland in former times, each young bachelor and maid received by lot one of the opposite sex as 'valentine' for the year. It was a kind of mock betrothal, and was marked by the giving of presents. From Pepys's Diary we see that married as well as single people could be chosen. The usage no doubt grew out of the old notion, alluded to by Chaucer and Shakespeare, that on this day birds first choose their mates. The observance of St Valentine's day degenerated into the usage of youths and maidens sending each other by post prints of a sentimental kind, such as Cupids, transfixed hearts, and the like. Another and less pardonable form is the sending of ludicrous caricatures, often vulgar enough; but such boorish witticisms are fast dying out. Several saints of this name (one of them a martyr at Rome under Claudius) were venerated on February 14; but the observances seem to be connected rather with the spring-time than with the career or character of the saints whose name is thus taken in vain.