We have just launched our brand new, valentines oak gifts and chopping boards and are getting a lot of traffic to the site which is simply amazing...Thankyou! It got me thinking why do we actually celebrate valentines and where did it start? So I did a little research....
Valentines Day
For those of you who don't know, Valentines day is the 14th February, everyyear and is a day when people traditionally show affection towards another person. By buying cards, gifts (oak gifts!) flowers and chocolates with messages of love.
St Valentine
Most people know that the name comes from the famous saintbut there are several schools of thought on who he was. The most popular belief is that St Valentine was a priest from Rome in 3rd century AD. In those days the Emperor Claudius II had put a stop to marriage as he decided married men didn't make great soldiers, St Valentine thought this to be unfair and arranged secret marriages. Once the Emperor found out he through St Valentine into jail and was sentenced to death. Whilst in prison he fell in love with the jailers daughter and when he was taken to be killed on 14th February he sent her a love letter signed "From Your Valentine".
How did Valentines Day Start?
It is a very old tradition thought to have originated from the Romans. They had a festival in February and it is thought that as pat of the celebrations, boys and girls drew names out of box. they would then remain together for the festival and sometimes they would get married.
The church wanted to turn this into a christian celebration and decided to use it to remember St Valentine too. Hence why people started to use his name to express their feelings to their loved ones.
Please take a look at From the Oak Tree's Valentines collection for a range of inspiring oak gifts and products that can be personalised with intimate messages, pet names or simply inspirational words. How ever you celebrate one another we can help!!
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