I Love You My Valentine

With Valentine's Day looming, so many thoughts go through each of our heads about this: Will I get a valentine? Does someone fancy me secretly? Will my partner forget? But does anyone actually know the real reason why it is celebrated? The story is actually a very sad and we forget to celebrate Saint Valentine for all he did.

In the Roman times boys and girls lives were very separate when growing up, so it was a tradition that on 14th February before the festival Lupercalia, the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man would draw a girl's name from the jar and would then be partners for the duration of the festival with the girl whom he chose. Sometimes the pairing of the children lasted an entire year, and often, they would fall in love and would later marry.

But as everyone seemed so happy within their marriages, the men folk didn't want to leave their wives and families to join the army, so Emperor Claudius II cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome.

It was Saint Valentine, a priest in Rome who secretly married the couples. Unfortunately he got found out and was sentenced to death. He died on 14th February in a horrific way, so when we celebrate Valentine's Day, we are actually celebrating all the good deeds Saint Valentine did to ensure the young couples got wed and the pain and suffering he went through because of his big heart.

Ok, that was your history lesson for the day, so don't tell us that we don't educate you as well as entertain.

So anyway back to the present and the big hype with just one day. Now from the story we now know that love just wasn't for one day, solders didn't want to go to war because of it. So should we not be celebrating LOVE every day?

This one day does give some people the excuse to be ignorant and self-absorbed for 364 days of the year and only paying their significant other the attention they should have for just one day. So if you are one of those types for people, then you may need to re-evaluate yourself and who you are with. If you don't feel you have to make an effort and make them feel special every day you are with them, then seriously, why are you?

I do think that LOVE should be celebrated every day, now this isn't just relationship love, but friendship, sisterly, brotherly, parentally, you get where I am going with this right. Life is so short so we really need to tell people how much we love them every day and truly mean what we say.

You can love someone from the moment you see them or grow to love some or have to love them (if you are related to them), so why not shout about it. Let me help you with this, here is my declaration of love:

To my darling Toy Boy, I fell in love with you the moment I looked into your deep brown eyes, and every day I get butterflies just thinking of you. I'm so excited to have you in my life and feel like I have found the missing piece to my hearts jigsaw.

See now it's your turn, make someone smile today and tell them how much you love them. It doesn't have to be a grand gesture making you broke but the great thing with words is they are completely free and comers straight from your heart.

Happy Valentine's Day Sheepbear readers! We LOVE you!