February 14: On This Day in World History … briefly
Way back in 1822 the British Postal Service could not cope with the sudden influx of 'love notes' that had to arrive on St Valentine's Day.
1822: Love notes pose postal headaches
Britain’s Postal Service is forced to employ extra mail sorters to make sure that the thousands of St Valentine’s Day love-letters sent would arrive on time.
The ‘quaint’ fashion was growing more and more popular by the year: Today is the day to affirm your love, perhaps with an anonymous note, or written in the secret language lovers share. And nobody knew how the custom started. It was thought that it may have started in 1477 when a Norfolk woman sent a note to her lover saying:
To my right wellbeloved Voluntyne.
Incidentally, there seems to have been two St Valentine’s, both third-century Italian priests, both martyred. Before that came a pagan fertility festival the Romans celebrated in mid-February.
Or it could simply be that love is in the air today – it’s an old English belief that this is the day that birds choose their mates.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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