Carol Fisher-Linn
Another Valentine Day to celebrate. How excited are you about this day?
It’s a funny thing about Valentine’s Day in my family. It’s a big deal because my folks started the extra-specialness of the day by getting married near Valentine’s Day February 12, 1934. When I got married, I had to settle for February 13 and finally, my daughter and her husband hit the jackpot on the actual date in 1997. Will there be another generation coming up? Time will tell. Regardless, the day has a lot of significance to us, although it turns out that a Harris poll recently found that only 1% of Americans think of Valentine’s Day as a BIG deal. I wonder if it would mean more if we got the day off? I suppose if it falls on a weekday, as it does this year, (Friday), that still gives the five-day-a-week, nine-to-fivers, the evening for a cozy, candlelit dinner for two (even if it is take-out) and the whole weekend to play and have fun together. Win-Win!
1797, but by the mid 19th century, an enterprising young 20-year-old, Esther
Howland, whose family owned a stationery store thought she could do better
by offering hand-made cards much like she had seen made in England.
Covered with adornments and lace she created these cards and sold them
for seventy-five cents (now $100.) Price seemed inconsequential as she was
swamped with orders and had to hire help to fill them all. Her business eventually
became the successful New England Valentine Company. “Named the
“Mother of the American Valentine” in a newspaper after her death in 1904,
Howland’s enduring claim to fame lies not only in having produced the first
elaborate, handcrafted valentines in the United States, but also in having popularized
Valentine’s Day cards across the country.
We know the festivities go back to ancient Rome when they celebrated a three-day feast/orgy called Lupercalia. No candlelit dinners here, just naked drunks who sacrificed goats, skinned them and then slapped passing ladies legs with the bloody hides. Now, the Pope (Gelasius) needed to put a stop to this pagan debauchery but knew he couldn’t just take their “fun” away. He cancelled Lupercalia but St. Valentine’s Day replaced it. You see, there was one (or maybe two) Mr. Valentine’s at that time in history who were proponents of love, even to the point of losing their lives, thus becoming saints. But, regardless, celebrating dead saints was better than Lupercalia!
Remember hand picking the sweetest card out of ten or twenty of those cute paper cutout cards that mom bought for you to give out at school when you were a youngster? It’s been 70 years that kiddoes have been giving, making, cutting, pasting, glittering, sweet hearts and clumsy verses to make greeting cards for friends and family. Can you remember taking yours home to mom, a trail of glitter following you? It’s nice to see that kids are still doing this in schools and going steps further to take cards to people in nursing and retirement homes and making thousands to send to vets near and far. Still time to do it if schools want to run with it.
The first printed cards adorned with paper flowers or frill on record date from 1797, but by the mid 19th century, an enterprising young 20-year-old, Esther Howland, whose family owned a stationery store thought she could do better by offering hand-made cards much like she had seen made in England. Covered with adornments and lace she created these cards and sold them for seventy-five cents (now $100.) Price seemed inconsequential as she was swamped with orders and had to hire help to fill them all. Her business eventually became the successful New England Valentine Company. “Named the “Mother of the American Valentine” in a newspaper after her death in 1904, Howland’s enduring claim to fame lies not only in having produced the first elaborate, handcrafted valentines in the United States, but also in having popularized Valentine’s Day cards across the country. Today’s multi-billion dollar greeting card industry is heavily indebted to the creativity, work ethic, and business acumen of Esther Howland. (blogsloc.com) Don’t you love an unstoppable woman with an idea?
Esther’s cards were boxed to preserve them, but then a guy by the name of Cadbury came up with the idea of putting Valentine’s Day candy in in heart shaped boxes in 1861. I can still remember my dad going to the local drugstore to buy mom a boxed, 8×10 padded and scented Valentine’s card and a heart-shaped box of chocolates to give to his Valentine sweetheart. I couldn’t wait for the candy to be gone so mom would give me the box to store treasures in.
Say what you will, Valentine’s Day is still a pretty special holiday where we can spend a few bucks, take a little time and just be with the ones we love for a day or two. And, please, remember mom or gram, wherever she is this Valentine’s Day. Send flowers, a card, but most importantly, make a phone call. It will be the best gift ever!