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Valentine's Trivia

Valentine Gloves?

Back in Colonial America, valentines were sometimes accompanied by a tiny pair of paper or real gloves. If a young lady accepted her suitor’s hand in marriage, she wore the gloves to church on the following Easter Sunday.

A Day for Women?
February 29th

According to legend, women are supposed to use leap years as an opportunity to propose marriage. This legend dates back to two Irish saints, St. Patrick and St. Bridget. Supposedly, these two saints created this idea to help quiet unrest among St. Bridget’s community of nuns. At that time, nuns were allowed to marry; however, not many of them were being proposed to. St. Bridget herself started the custom by proposing to St. Patrick, but unfortunately he had taken a vow of celibacy and had to turn her down. This custom caught on, and even became the law in Scotland. In 1288, Scottish law granted women the right to propose during leap years. If the man refused, he had to pay the woman a pound! While this tradition may sound like the more popular “Sadie Hawkins Day,” there’s no connection. Sadie Hawkins Day was created by Al Capp, the cartoonist and is celebrated in November of all years, leap or common.

Signing an "X" for a kiss

Love letters throughout the year are often signed with a string of "X's" to represent kisses. Why? Our practice of using an "X" grew out of the Medieval practice of letting those who could not write, mark documents with an "X" to represent their names. This was done in the presence of witnesses and a kiss was given upon the "X" to show sincerity. The "X" then became synonymous with the kiss in the minds of most people.

Birds flying overhead

Some people used to believe that if a woman saw a robin flying overhead on Valentine's Day, it meant she would marry a sailor. If she saw a sparrow, she would marry a poor man and be very happy. If she saw a goldfinch, she would marry a millionaire.

Heart on your sleeve?

In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their Valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.