It seemed unusual to me that there are a few Saint Valentines through history. There there are more than 10,000 saints recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, so I guess there are a few repetitions of names. It turns out that the Eastern Orthodox Church also has saints, and some Protestant churches recognize saints. Only the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches venerate Saints.
I was surprised to find out that Wikipedia says that there are Lutheran saints. I was raised in the Lutheran church, and this turns out to be news to me. We had no saints whatsoever. Maybe there is a difference between German and North American traditions. I looked at the list of Lutheran saints. There are lots of names in the list. Could John Donne really be a saint? He is listed as writer poet and Anglican cleric. Of course he is the first of the metaphysical poets. But a saint?
That aside, I guess if there are that many saints, then a saint can be connected to every significant cultural event.
So here we are on the day to celebrate romantic love, friendship and appreciation. And our current practices are very interesting.
Did you know that a quarter of pet owners give Valentine's Day gifts to their pets? And that the only year that billions of candy hearts were not produced was in 2019 - that was because the company was sold. And what about the tradition of sending letters to Juliet or Romeo and Juliet in Verona, Italy. I think the Juliet Club takes care of responding to the letters on her behalf. Yes, and red roses in flowerography, the language of flowers, do symbolize love.
This is the cute little bubble house in Buffalo, and often used as the mascot for the Buffalo Garden Walk.
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