Who was St. Valentine and where did the heart shape come from?

Perhaps this post should be under "education" on my Our Day blog but to be honest, I wanted to put in a little bump for my Valentine "messages from the heart" that I lovingly hand-made for my shop ready for that special day. So, with just a week left of free UK postage on an item that is just perfect for the 14th February (or any other special event for loved ones), I thought I'd try and find out the answers to these questions.

So, as we all know, modern day drawings of the heart resemble love and romance and as a heart is usually coloured red, it resembles passion. The shape that we all associate as a heart was believed to have been modelled on a human heart as many ancients, including Aristole, felt all human passions came from the heart. As we know, the human heart is not shaped like this at all - it has four chambers whereas the heart of a frog, with its three chambers, looks alittle more like it! This and two other possible heart shape theories can be found on this site.

St. Valentine then, who was he? According to one of our well used sites, Woodlands Junior School, there have been, as shown in the Catholic Encyclopaedia, mentions of three St. Valentines who have had something to do with 14th February. However, most experts suggest that the actual Valentine that we associate with St. Valentine's Day was a Roman who was martyred because he refused to give up Christianity. You can read more on the traditions of Valentine's Day on the Woodlands site here.

I remember giving and receiving my first Valentine's Day card when I was about 15 when boys suddenly played a huge part in my life! I've still got the card in my special box as well as many others after that. This year I'm making up a small box of goodies for hubby Paul for this special day. The first thing I've put in is a colourful drawn heart card, getting my inspiration from the artist Jim Dine.