Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is 14 February, a day kept for romantic love, friendship, and affection.

The name comes from Saint Valentine. Early martyrologies record more than one Valentine. The link with courtship is medieval. Geoffrey Chaucer, in the Parliament of Fowls, ties Saint Valentine's Day to the day birds choose their mates. Printed Valentine cards became common in England in the eighteenth century, and mass-produced cards spread in the United States in the nineteenth.

The tile below counts down to the next 14 February.

Esther Howland of Worcester, Massachusetts, sold commercial Valentine cards from the late 1840s.