Happy Valentine's Day

I have been wondering lately where Valentine's Day came from. I have been hearing a lot of grumbling...especially from the men around me. I keep hearing about how horrible Valentine's Day is. "It is just a stupid Hallmark Holiday" they say. Why is it that they hate Valentine's Day so much? Is it because they feel forced to do something nice and romantic? It is because they don't know how to so they feel out of their element or is it a combination of the two?

So anyway I did a little research to figure out just where it all started.

Apparently the holiday is named after two men, both Christian martyrs named Valentine. The day became associated with romantic love in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. Valentine's Day started out as a mutual exchange of Valentines but in North America it has become more typical for a man to give a gift to a woman....how sad...it should be mutual. No wonder there is so much grumbling. Although it is also sad to think that for some people Valentine's Day is one of the very few days that people do special things for the special people in their life. Thank goodness this does not have to be true in my life so HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!