The Valentine's Day holiday is celebrated on February 14th.
During Valentine's Day, children send cards to their friends, while
married and romantic couples send each other cards, flowers or candy.
Valentine's day cards may have poems and artistic pictures.
The historical beginning of Valentine's Day is probably connected to a
Christian saint, and a belief that spring is a time for romantic couples.
In 200 AD, a Christian priest named Valentine married young couples in secret
and against Roman laws that forbade men to marry.
During Valentine's imprisonment, people passed secret notes to him through his cell window.
Valentine was executed on February 14, probably around 270 AD.
The church declared February 14th as Saint Valentine's Day.
Valentine's Day was celebrated as early as the 1400's in England.
English calendars marked February 14th as the day when birds chose their mates.
By the 1700's, men wore their valentine's name on their sleeve, hence the saying "wearing his heart on his sleeve."
Stores began to sell "valentine writers", which were books that included suggestions and verses to copy when writing a valentine.
The first commercial valentines were valentine cards created and sold by an English artist during the early 1800's.
