Valentine's Day cards are one of the great expectations and attractions of this special day. Such cards embody a very wide range of emotions - traditional capricious, humorous, charming, ornate, romantic, sensitive, and many more. Cards for Valentine's Day are invariably sent or given to anyone considered a lover or a romantically inclined boyfriend or girlfriend.
The tradition of Valentine's Day greeting cards dates back to the middle ages. Some say it began with Charles Duke of Orleans in 1415. He addressed a poem to his much loved spouse while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following the battle of Agincourt. This particular greeting card is a special memoir and a part of the manuscript collection which can be seen in the British Library.
But did the Saint Valentine have anything to do with Valentine's Day? And who was he anyway? It is thought that he was most probably a legend; however, there are in fact three Saints who go by the name Valentine or Valentinius, each associated with the 14th February. One was a priest, another a bishop, yet all three were said to be martyred. One of the most popular legends states that just before his beheading for refusing to deny Christ, Valentine wrote a letter to his beloved which he signed "From Your Valentine".
By the sixteenth century, the tradition of Saint Valentine's Day greeting cards had really started to gain momentum. Handwritten cards were then being elaborately decorated with laces, silk or satin, flowers, gold-leaf and even perfumed. Coloured paper and watercolours were amongst the essential elements used to create the greeting card. Also in those days ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions at a time when subtle emotions were the appropriate response and direct expression of one's feelings was discouraged.
Paper Valentine greeting cards have long been very popular in the UK. Manufactured cards with images of Cupid and hearts were even on sale at the end of the nineteenth century.
The most common one liner in these cards is "Be My Valentine". Don't forget, a Valentine is ‘a person' singled out as one's sweetheart on Saint Valentine's Day.
In the age of electronic greetings there has been a real revival of, and fascination for, handmade Valentines Day cards. Even though cards have also found their way into the e-cards form, electronic Valentine's Day greeting cards that can be sent and received virtually through the World Wide Web, such e-cards are often frowned upon and thought by recipients to be the result of the sender ‘forgetting them' and using an e-card as a last minute, better than nothing, option.
Whatever the form you use, a unique, sentimental handmade card or a pre printed card with a personalised message, it is the message the card carries that truly matters.
As Saint Valentine's Day approaches, there is even more to consider these days, there is also the Valentine's gift, with chocolates, flowers, fragrances and jewellery being the gifts most readily received.
