ST. VALENTINE'S DAY.

Mataura Ensign, 14 February 1910, Page 3

ST. VALENTINE'S DAY.

ANCIENT CUSTOMS. The custom of exchanging love-tokens on St. Valentine's Day (to-day), probably lias been handed down to us from the ancient Romans, wlio on the occasion of the feast of the Luperealia, which was celebrated on this day, chose then' lady-loves for the year. The young men met together and placed the names of certain maidens in a receptacle, from which each in turn drew one. The girl was supposed to submit gracefully to this manner of proposal and devote her attentions to the lucky man, whether ho was to bo her liking or not. The spread of Christianity in tile Roman empire naturally revolutionised all the old pagan festivals, and the festival of the Luperealia became our St. valentine's Day. The idrawing of names took a new form. Young men and maidens gathered together upon the eve of St Valentine's Day and wrote upon slips of paper the name of a member of the opposite sex whom each favored. These were placed in a vase and drawn out one by one. The owners of tho names were supposed to be the drawers' valentines for the ensuing year, but all had the privilege of refusing the honor and trying their luck again. Tho custom of giving presents was of later origin, and is mentioned by l'epys, the celebrated diarist of Charles ll.'s time. During the early part of Queen Victoria's reign, St. Valentine's Day offored an excellent op|>ortunit.v to a timid lover. ]iy means of pictures of bleeding hearts and little Cupids, and verses which were calculated to melt a stone, lie could reveal to his adored one the state of his feelings. Many a modest swain sighed the whole year for St. Valentine's Day, when he could pour out his heart's feelings at a penny a line, illustrated. One of tho most popular old superstitions in connection with this day w is that the first unmarried man a girl met on St. Valentine's morning was decreed by fate to be her future husband. A bachelor had the privilege of kissing the first girl he met. Another superstition in which the youth of the period implicitly believed was that if a damsel peeped out of the door early in the morning of this fateful day and caught a glimpse of a ben and a rooster, it was inevitable that she would be married before the year's end. Pinning bayleaves to one's pillow induced dreams in which tho love-sick maiden saw her future lord.

Tile practice of making git'ts on St. Valentine's Day was popular ill Queen Elizabeth's day, and there are records to show to what extravagances the young beaux and belles of the period carried it. It is chronicled that m this manner Sir Walter Raleigh received one hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth of jewels t'rom court ladies, and that he was equally extravagant in reciprocating. The Duchess of J!ichliioml received rings valued at fifty-two thousand dollars on one occasion, ami" Nell Gwynne is said to have received as a valentine from Charles 11. a necklace that cost fifteen thousand dollars.