St. Valentines Day

• Saint Valentine's Day is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions.[1][3] The day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Valentine and was established by Pope Gelasius I in AD 500. It is traditionally a day on which lovers express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines"). The day first became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.

• Modern Valentine's Day symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have largely given way to mass-produced greeting cards.

• To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,All in the morning betime,And I a maid at your window,To be your Valentine.Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes,And dupp'd the chamber-door;Let in the maid, that out a maidNever departed more.

• —William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5

• Hayle Bishop Valentine whose day this isAll the Ayre is thy DioceseAnd all the chirping QueristersAnd other birds ar thy parishionersThou marryest every yeareThe Lyrick Lark, and the graue whispering Doue,The Sparrow that neglects his life for loue,The houshold bird with the redd stomacherThou makst the Blackbird speede as soone,As doth the Goldfinch, or the HalcyonThe Husband Cock lookes out and soone is speddAnd meets his wife, which brings her feather-bed.This day more cheerfully than ever shineThis day which might inflame thy selfe old Valentine.

• —John Donne, Epithalamion Vpon Frederick Count Palatine and the Lady Elizabeth marryed on St. Valentines day

Every year on February 14 lovers long for a gift of Rose from their Valentine as the flower has come to denote ‘I love you'. No wonder, demand for roses reach its zenith on

Valentine's Day as people across the globe chose to express their love with a lovely rose.

•Red Roses - Love and passion Yellow Roses - Friendship White Roses - True love and purity of the mind Pink Roses - Friendship or Sweetheart

Black Roses - Farewell

Valentines Day Symbols

Lovebirds and Doves are an endearing and prominent Valentine's Day symbols. The symbol traces its origin from a belief in the olden times that birds found their mate on February 14. Interestingly, lovers across the world till date hold on to this belief.

Love knot is yet another symbol of Valentine's Day. Representing love that will last forever, love knots are actually a series of winding and intertwining loops that have neither a

beginning nor an end.

Today, one finds great use of red heart symbol especially heart shaped red

balloons in Valentine's Day decoration. Stuffed red heart decorated with a lace is

a popular Valentine's Day Gift.

Winged and mischievous little angel called Cupid is one of the very famous Valentine's Day Symbols. The symbol traces its origin from the Roman mythology where Cupid has been described as the son of Venus - the Goddess of Love. It is believed that Cupid had a bow with a quiver of arrows and anyone hit by Cupid's arrow did not die but fell in love. According to a myth, it was Cupid's mother Venus who used to send him on such errands.