Fowl Love

Yesterday, in honor of Valentine’s Day, I read up on the history of the infamous day.  Did you know that the first recorded connection of romantic love with February 14th was in Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem, “A Parliament of Foules”, written in 1382.  The line went, For this was Saint Valentine’s Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate.

These fowls from our farmyard look rather like they might be getting ready to choose something…..maybe a mate:

Before the birth of Christianity, the Romans held fertility festivals known as Lupercalia and Juno Februa during mid-February and that might be a factor in how the modern version of Valentine’s Day came to be.  As for the man called Valentine, his saintly title may refer to multiple persons, as there was more than one Christian martyr by that name back in the early centuries A.D.  One of the unfortunate Valentines happened to be buried on the 14th of February, thus the association of that date with the word “Valentine”. 

Something in me says we should hesitate to mingle someone’s day of martyrdom with such fluff as greeting cards, cupids, and candy.  Let’s eat chocolate every day of the year!