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Valentine's Day Customs of the Past
Valentine's Day has long been a cheerful time for young people to celebrate romance and hopes of an eventual marriage. Particularly in Great Britain, the day was celebrated with gifts, songs, and candy. Special buns were baked which were filled with currants, plums, and caraway seeds. Unmarried girls were warned not to bring early spring bouquets of snowdrops into the house before the 14th of February. Doing so would jeopardize their chances of marriage that year, according to the old superstition.
Some Valentine's Day customs of the past involved ways for young women to find out who their future husbands would be. For instance, an Italian custom was for young women to rise before dawn and watch out the window for a man to pass by. The first one they saw was either the man they would marry or one who resembled him. Some girls would wait patiently for hours in hopes of that special gent.
Girls had other methods of determining future spouses. One way was to write the names of boys on slips of paper. The girl would roll the papers inside balls of clay and drop them in water. The first paper to float to the top would bear the name of the beau. Another method involved bay leaves. A girl would pin one bay leaf to each corner of her and one to the center. It was believed that this charm would cause her to dream of her future husband.
In some places girls would rise early on Valentine's Day and peek through their keyhole. If they saw two objects, they believed they would marry that year, but if they could only see one, their chances were diminished. Girls would also take hempseed to the church yard at midnight. They would circle the church, sowing the seeds and chanting that their lover was on his way and would soon appear.
The Danish people also had Valentine's Day customs. One was to press snowdrops and use the pressed flowers as greetings to one another. They also originated a sort of joking letter called a "gaekkebrev." The young men would send these letters to their chosen young ladies. The letter would include a rhyme, but the signature would be in code. When the girl guessed the right suitor, he was expected to give her an Easter egg that year.
Valentine's Day customs developed in the Far East as well as in Europe. In Japan, girls can give a gift to their chosen beau on February 14th, and he has to return the same type of gift on March 14th. The same custom takes place in Korea, with the gift being candy. In Taiwan, July 7th is also celebrated as a valentine's day, along with February 14th. There, the men give symbolic bouquets to the women they love. Red roses are customary, with the number of them being symbolic. If a young man gives a young lady 108 red roses, it is the equivalent of a marriage proposal.
Valentine's Day customs vary from place to place, but some things remain the same. Flowers, candy, and cards appear in one form or another almost everywhere.
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