Reporter’s diary

Press, 13 February 1982, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Oh, my Valentine

TOMORROW you may be lucky enough to receive a bunch .of red roses or a heart-bedecked card expressing—probably anonymously—undying love. The custom of sending a token of love on St Valentine’s Day, February 14. dates from Roman times. In English

tradition gloves and knots of blue and red ribbons were sent, but in modern times cards and .roses or spring flowers have become the usual way for an admirer to express his or her love. Vanentine was a Christian martyr, who died in Rome about 270. Little is known about his life, and some sources say there were two St Valentines who died on

the same day but in different years. It is believed that the custom of sending Valentines on his festival is unconnected with life of the saint, deriving instead from pagan spring celebrations in midFebruary. According to information sent in by an anonymous dieay reader, St Valentine’s bones rest in a small gold-bound casket in the Carmelite Church in Dublin. A gift to the church from Pope Gregory XVI in 1836, St Valentine’s remains were taken from a cemetary in Rome. They were placed in the casket, which was taken to Dublin and enshrined with great ceremony. Each year on February i 4 the casket is carried in a solemn procession to the high altar for a young peoples’ Mass.

. . . sss MANY myths surround Valentine's Day. One which interested us is that different coloured roses carry a different significance: it was suggested that red roses meant love, while white roses stood for lust. A local florist, however, discounted such “superstitious notions.” “If you send a big bunch of roses it hits you in the pocket and that obviously

has a meaning,” he said. It will cost about $l3 for a single packaged one-stem rose or nearly $3B for a dozen premuim quality roses, including delivery. Sending flowers on Valentine’s Day has become popular in the last five or six years. “Ten years ago the idea of sending flowers would have been laughed out of the football club, but today everybody is doing it,” our informant said. His shop expected to deliver about 300 consignments tomorrow,* the biggest order so far being for 50 red roses. Better late . . .

A SOUTH Brighton resident was amused yesterday when her electricity meter was read. She was left with a pamphlet from the Municiple Electricity Department on. “how to have fun but play safe with electricity out of doors” during summer. “Another summer is just around the corner,” it read. Most consumers probably received the pamphlet when summer was just around the corner, but the M.E.D. appears to believe that Brighton enjoys a much longer summer than the rest of Christchurch. If only it were true. Student radio

RADIO U. the radio station run by studenst at the Uni-

versity of Canterbury as part of the orientation programme, will take to the air waves on Monday. It will run from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. each day until March 13. The station is inviting any community group wishing to advertise their activities to take part in its community service slot. The telephone number of the station 488610. ‘THE TAP’ HOUSEMASTERS ,at Eton have called a halt to pupils drinking beer during their mid-moring break. Until now, boys aged 16 and over were allowed to slip out for the morning “snifter” at their own pub “The Tap,” a British newspaper reports. The school believed in pupils learning how to drink socially. But now the morning pint has been banned and the op ening hours of the pub have been reduced. It was felt that the boys were being given too much encouragement to drink. As well, too many had to slip out\>f their classes to go to the toilet. . Clear as mud A TRAVELLER in Canada bought a pair of thick work socks, this month's edition of “Consumer” reports. They were labelled “100 per cent unknown fibres.”