Seaford Museum – Happy Valentines Day

Dr Sally White considers the development of the tradition

Ah, Valentine’s Day Cards. All red roses and anonymous declarations of love. But it wasn’t always so simple. Back in 1537, King Henry VIII declared by Royal Charter that Valentine’s Day would be a public holiday and chose 14th February as the official day of celebration. Cromwell abolished Valentine’s Day along with many other enjoyable festivals but it was reinstated after the Restoration in 1666.

In 1756 one writer described the great lengths some people undertook to discover the name of their Valentine. This young lady used several techniques, just to be sure. ‘Last Friday was Valentine’s Day, and the night before, I got five bay leaves and pinned four of them to the four corners of my pillow and fifth to the middle; and then, if I dreamt of my sweetheart, Betty said we should be married before the year was out. But to make it more sure, I boiled an egg hard, and took out the yolk, and filled it with salt; and when I went to bed, ate it, shell and all without speaking or drinking after it. We also wrote out lovers’ names upon bits of paper, and rolled them up in clay, and put them into water; and the first that rose up was to be our Valentine. Would you think it, Mr Blossom was my man. I lay abed and shut my eyes all the morning, ‘till he came to our house; for I would not have seen another man before him for all the world’.’

When using the bay leaf method many people repeated ‘Dear Guardian Angel, let me have what I so earnestly do crave, a Valentine imbued with love, who will both true and constant prove.’

In the sixteenth – seventeenth centuries, gloves, decorated stay busks, lace bobbins and knitting sheaths were all considered appropriate presents for a lad to give to his Valentine. In some parts of the country a girl expected her Valentine to give her a pair of new gloves to wear on Easter Sunday.

Samuel Pepys refers to Valentine’s Day a number of times in his diaries and mentions the buying of gloves and garters as presents. Parsimonious man that he was, he moaned about the expense of having to buy his wife a present each year since he had told her she would always be his Valentine. He refers to the Duke of York giving Lady Arabella Stuart a ring worth £800.

By the early 19th century, a large number of rude and crude Valentine cards were being sent, and as the recipient had to pay 1d to receive post rather than the sender, it was costing the recipients dear – fathers were getting fed up. In 1829 Post Offices were warned that all undelivered (i.e unpaid for) Valentines must be sent to the Dead Letter Office. Mind you Valentine’s Day was the busiest time of the year for the Post Office so the revenue was important. In the 1830’s postmen were so busy in the days leading up to 14th February that they were given a refreshment allowance. Valentine Cards were often hand-painted on a quarto sheet of paper which was then folded and sealed as sending an envelope was charged additional postage.

There is also a question concerning the language of flowers, showing how careful men needed to be in choosing the bouquet for their Valentine. Heartsease stand for friendship not love, carnations for jealousy, tulips for honour, snowdrops for hope and lily of the valley for amiability. Red roses declared true love but white roses meant ‘I love you not!’ Colour was not just important with roses. Generally yellow showed jealousy and pink, innocent love. One rose shows love, 12, gratitude, 25 congratulations and 50 unconditional love. It was all a bit more complicated than sending a saucy card to someone – unsigned, of course. But today, about 50 million roses are given each year worldwide at Valentines. It’s not yet known what affect ‘virtual’ bouquets or cards have had on the market. And around 15% of American women have admitted to buying themselves Valentine’s cards and presents. Happy Valentine’s Day!