Good morning! 
It’s Sunday, 14 February 2021 (W6/D45/320 rem)
Today is 
Valentine’s Day 
Contrary to its modern commercialised face, Valentine’s Day has a long and storied history, and has been recognised as a Saints Day since 496AD. So before you give me kak for choosing it for today’s Today Is… post, let’s learn a little love .
Also called Saint Valentine’s Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, Valentine’s Day originated as a Western Christian feast day honouring two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine. Through later folk traditions, it has become a significant cultural, religious, and commercial celebration of romance and romantic love throughout the world.
There are a number of martyrdom stories associated with various Valentines connected to February 14, including an account of the imprisonment of Saint Valentine of Rome for ministering to Christians persecuted under the Roman Empire in the third century. According to an early tradition, Saint Valentine restored sight to the blind daughter of his jailer.
Numerous later additions to the legend have better related it to the theme of love: an 18th-century embellishment to the legend claims he wrote the jailer’s daughter a letter signed “Your Valentine” as a farewell before his execution; another addition posits that Saint Valentine performed weddings for Christian soldiers who were forbidden to marry.
The Feast of Saint Valentine was established by Pope Gelasius I in AD 496 to be celebrated on February 14 in honour of Saint Valentine of Rome, who died on that date in AD 269.
The day became associated with romantic love in the 14th and 15th centuries when notions of courtly love flourished, apparently by association with the “lovebirds” of early spring.
In 18th-century England, it grew into an occasion in which couples expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as “valentines”).
Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have given way to mass-produced greeting cards. In Italy, Saint Valentines’s Keys are given to lovers “as a romantic symbol and an invitation to unlock the giver’s heart”.
Valentine’s Day symbols that are used today include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid.
However (or if, you cold, cynical soul!) you decide to express your love with your Valentine today, may it be a wonderful day!
Have a love-filled Sunday 