Valentine’s Day is celebrated in honour of a 3rd century Roman priest. His name was Valentine. The Emperor at that time, Claudius II, banned marriages because he believed, unmarried men were better soldiers. Valentine didn’t agree with this and married couples in secret. When the Emperor found out, Valentine was sentenced to death.
While he was in prison, he fell in love with the jailer’s daughter. He died on 14th February but just before his death, he wrote a final message to the girl. He signed it ‘From your Valentine’. Not long after his death, Valentine was made a saint.
The story of Valentine spread and it soon became tradition to send a card to the person you secretly admired. The cards were always signed ‘From your Valentine’. The first printed cards appeared in the 1800s.
Today, we send over a billion Valentine cards each year. Seventy percent of them are sent by women. The cards often have short poems on them. Here are some examples:
Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet and so are you.
Roses are red, violets are blue, as deep as the ocean my love is for you.
I love you for a lifetime, not only for a day. I love you for who you are, not what you do or say.
You are my Valentine; you bring me pleasure, with all my love you could not measure, so this day I will always treasure. Happy Valentine’s for ever and ever.
Vocabulary:
in honour of – valaki tiszteletére
emperor – uralkodó
to ban – betiltani
to sentence to death – halálra ítélni
jailer – börtönőr
to spread – terjedni
to admire – csodálni
to appear – megjelenni
pleasure – öröm
to measure – mérni
to treasure – nagy becsben tart
