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Did you know the heart is the only organ in the body with its own international holiday?
Ever since the Middle Ages, sweethearts have swapped cards, candies, and flowers every February 14. But the holiday itself started in ancient Rome. February 14 was a feast day. It was also the date that lovebirds began to mate, or so they say. Then it became St. Valentine’s Day, although the name’s origins are unclear.
All around the world, people believe that the heart is important to life, love, and happiness. It is part of our songs, our poems, our language, and our customs.
▲ Roman mythology presented Venus as the goddess of love. She and Mars, the god of war, created a chubby little god called Cupid. Under orders from his mother, little Cupid shot golden arrows into people’s hearts. Like magic, the people fell in love.
A fan in sixteenth-century Spain meant, “My heart is yours.” Lace cards, red roses, chocolates, and sweet-smelling sachets were also popular gifts. Sachets are small bags of sweet-smelling herbs.
Try This!
Usually, you can tell when a word has to do with the heart. That’s because cardio means “heart” in Greek. For example, cardiology is the study of the heart, cardiomegaly is an enlarged heart (mega means “big”), and cardiopulmonary is the heart-lung system (pulmonary means “lung”). Now that you know how to find them, can you find other cardio words?
◀ This is a fraktur, or certificate, from the Pennsylvania Dutch culture. It says, “When you and I are parted and cannot together be, look on this little Valentine, and think of me.”
Think Piece!
You can probably see how the color and shape of bleeding heart flowers earned them their name. Some people get called bleeding hearts because they feel sympathy for others. Sympathy is good, but the term “bleeding heart” suggests that someone has too much of it. What do you think—is it possible to have too much sympathy or pity for others?
◀ This 1493 woodcut may be St. Valentine’s first appearance in a book. He’s holding a martyr’s palm. A martyr is someone who suffers or even dies for his or her beliefs. Two men named Valentine became martyrs under Roman Emperor Claudius II. One of them was the “real” St. Valentine, who went to prison and was beheaded for his ideals. Before he died, he supposedly gave the first valentine to the jailor’s daughter.
Almost all Valentine’s Day cards are decorated with love symbols, especially hearts and cupids.
Tokens of Love Through History
▲ Spoons
A silver spoon is sometimes given as a Valentine’s gift. It’s a symbol of purity.
▲ Gloves
Quick... what was the most common Valentine’s Day gift from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries? Gloves! They symbolized honesty and friendly intentions.
▲ Shells
Shells often decorate gifts given on Valentine’s Day, perhaps in honor of the goddess of love, Venus. Mythology says she rose from the sea.
▲ Coins
To win a lady’s love, men in England in the fifteenth century would give her a coin that had been bent twice. That way, it couldn’t be spent by mistake.
▲ Sleeves
Lovers would often give detachable sleeves with true-love knots.
Emily Dickinson wrote this well-known poem about the heart:
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
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