Every year there is a tradition of celebrating the day when all people spread love and share the best wishes with the persons they are in love with. So, when is Valentine’s Day in 2020? The old tradition, saved until nowadays, says that people usually celebrate this day on February 14th. Couples, who are in love, exchange the gifts, such as cards that look like heart, and lovely letters with some famous poetry about Valentine’s Day and make their match feel happy. But many historians say this special day also has rich and unusual history, as well many legends. So how it all started?
The history of Valentine’s Day
In the Middle Ages era in the kingdoms of Western Europe there were the legends about Saint Valentine saying about the real existence of such a person. The oldest legend, known as Golden Legend, says Roman Emperor Claudius Gothicus was very overbearing and cruel so he thought that a man without a wife or any other woman in his life was the best and the strongest warrior. It was forbidden to get married and especially go to church to protect the marriage.
St. Valentine was just a battlefield doctor and priest who felt sorry for the young people falling in love and not being able to be together. Secretly in the darkness of the night he was helping them to get married according to all the marriage traditions ever existed. But later his act was suddenly uncovered by the local authorities who started solving that problem immediately. They sent Valentine to the dungeon and sentenced him to death. Nowadays some people ask, what day is Valentine’s Day in 2020 in case something has changed?
But this is history and the historians have chosen the date of the celebrating this day according to real historical facts. After he had been sentenced to death, Valentine fell in love with Julia who was the daughter of the prison overseer. He wrote a letter to her where he opened his feelings and love, ending it just saying “Your Valentine”. It was read only after he had been executed by Claudius II on February 14th 269 AD.
According to the second, also common history fact, patrician Valentine held a wedding ceremony for two of his servants. Three of them were detained in custody very quickly and send to the prison. Valentine has special status in society of those days so he avoided the execution. Apparently, he wanted to save the lives of his servants so he decided to write a letter in heart shape which could have only meant the Christian love. According to this legend, when is Valentine’s Day 2020?
Historians say that obviously Valentine was killed on February 14th while he tried to help his servants who were in love to save their lives also help other people. Valentine was meant to give that letter to the blind girl but he did by himself instead. Before the death, he gave the last letter, sanctified by faith and kindness, to that girl who suddenly saw the light and became a young beautiful woman.
Interesting facts about Valentine’s Day
These are some interesting and unusual facts about the Valentine’s Day celebration and other things that will change the reader’s mind about this day:
- In Victorians times people considered signing the Valentine’s card could bring a bad luck and unhappiness to life.
- Did you know that pet owners sometimes give Valentine’s cards and other gifts to their admired pets?
- The far-famed Valentine’s gift that literally disappears by the end of the day of celebrating is chocolate.
- Every year there are more than thousand messages sent to Juliet (Romeo and Juliet) because folk still love her.
- Some people would prefer to not receive the gift because of the personal reasons.
- American women can send the flowers to themselves instead.
- In Japan Valentine’s day is the day when women give all the romantic gifts to the men. Men suppose to return the favor in a month – March 14th is official White Day when all men make surprises for their women.
- What is the date of Valentine’s Day 2020? February 14th is official date for the most of the countries and it never changes.
- Some people love using sentence like “Sweets for sweet” which is actually a line from Hamlet, Shakespeare.
- Common colors of Valentine’s Day are pink or red.
- The Roman goddess of love, Venus, loved the flowers that symbolized the romantic feelings – roses.
- Valentine’s Day is the second most popular occasion after Christmas when there are sold tons of flowers, chocolates, cards in heart shape and other things in red or pink style.
- Husbands prefer making more serious gifts for their women or just a simple bouquet of flowers.
- The common words for this day are “I love you” which sound different in other languages: in German “Ich liebe dich”, in Italian “Ti amo”, in French “Je tโaime, Je tโadore”, in Bosnian “Volim te”, in Spanish “Te quiero / Te amo”.
The traditions of Valentine’s Day
When is Valentine’s Day in 2020, calendar is a good reminder of that? Every year in February people follow the particular traditions of celebrating that had been creating for ages. And it’s actually different and depends on the country where it celebrates.
- There is an old tradition called “drawing for love” that was banned by French government. Men and women together chose one particular house for crowding round and there changed the partners in order to check if their feelings were mutual. If man is not satisfied with the partner he has chosen he could easily leave her. That woman stayed with the man that matches her the best and then with the rest of women they used to go to the bonfire and burn the photos of the men who disappointed them.
- In China women prepare the best fruits to find good man. Other couples pray together for family happiness and found enjoyment in observing the stars called Vega and Altair coming closer and closer as a symbol of true love.
- This old Italian practice suited only for single unmarried girls. Their task was to awake as early as possible to catch sight of the future husband. The first man girl sees on that day supposed to be her husband that should have married her within one year. Today’s traditions are similar so Italian couples just prefer romantic dinner and exchanging the gifs.