[Larry124]

From www.stvalentinesday.org
Society for the Confluence of Festivals in India.

Yes, India.

Tradition of Valentine's Day in Scotland
In Scotland, Valentine Day has a very simple and sweet tradition associated with it. People deliver cards to their near and dear ones with special Valentine messages. These cards are popularly known as “Valentines” and are sent anonymously. Cards are designed with artificial hearts, red color and Valentine special symbols to reflect love and trust. Everyday people eagerly wait for the postman's arrival when Valentine's day is near.

Craze and passion for Valentine's Day is much visible in Scottish schools as well. Children celebrate the day by making Valentine cards and filling them with valentine rhymes. Sometimes, they also write poems on the envelope to speed up the delivery by the postman.

Another very important and enthusiastically followed tradition is the search of Valentine date. According to this Scottish custom, the first young man or woman encountered on the street or elsewhere on Valentine's Day becomes his or her Valentine and the day is celebrated with them.

Valentine's Day Celebration
Valentine's Day celebrations is not a grand affair in Scotland. People prefer small get-togethers or a romantic candlelight dinner. They exchange gifts and cards with their loved ones to make them feel special.

Various games are played in Scottish Valentine parties. In a most popular game, an equal number of men and women are made to write their names on a piece of paper which is then folded and placed into a hat. One hat is for ladies and the other one is for men. The female then draws one name from the men's hat and the chosen man has to stick with his Valentine throughout the party. Later on, gifts are exchanged and Valentine's Day is greeted with hugs and kisses. Such wonderful Valentine games often result in unusual marriages.”

[Larry124]

From www.rampantscotland.com

St. Valentine's Day 1565

Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, who had already set about wooing his cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, met her for the first time on St Valentine's Day, 14 February, 1565.

Darnley had sent a miniature portrait of himself to Mary eighteen months before-hand, in order to arouse her interest.

He clearly succeeded because after the meeting on St Valentine's Day, the couple were married five months later, on 29 July 1565.

Mary Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley had one child - who became King James VI of Scotland and, in 1603 after the death of Queen Elizabeth I, king of England and Wales also.

Lord Darnley was murdered on 10 February 1567. Mary's subsequent husband, the Earl of Bothwell, was probably involved in the plot to kill Darnley.

And the miniature portrait? Mary kept it with her till she was executed by Queen Elizabeth of England, on 8 February, 1587, neraly 22 years after that first meeting with Lord Darnley on St Valentine's Day.

[Larry124]

From http://goireland.about.com/od/specia...tine_irish.htm

Visit the Man Himself in Dublin - Saint Valentine
Not too many people know it, but Saint Valentine actually is a "Dub". Well, sort of ... a church in Whitefriar Street (Aungier Street), built in the 19th century, became his home. In 1835 Pope Gregory XVI gave the relics of Saint Valentine to the Carmelite Church there, to boost Catholicism. So what better place to celebrate Valentine's Day? Proposing here should be a guarantee for success. Unless you join the ranks of a few Doubting Thomas’s claiming that the saint's relics were actually mixed up with the relics of another, lesser known St. Valentine. But could bookkeeping really have been so sloppy in the Vatican?

[Larry124]

From the BBC

St. Valentine Remembered

If St. Valentine's day proves nothing else it is that love can thrive in the unlikeliest of places
And it does not come much more unlikely than a monastery in one of Scotland's most deprived inner city areas.

But friars at the church of Blessed St John Duns Scotus in Glasgow's Gorbals area have held a special Valentine's service on Sunday, putting on display what are thought to be the martyr's bones.

And they are hoping the relics could help make Glasgow Europe's city of love.

The remains spent more than a century in a side aisle of St Francis' Church, Glasgow and for the last six years they were kept in a wooden casket in a cardboard box, on a wardrobe in a nearby chapel house.

The Franciscan friars were asked in 1868 to look after the remains by a French family who had owned other religious relics.

Confusion surrounds exactly who St Valentine was. According to the Catholic Encyclopaedia, at least three Saint Valentines are mentioned in the early martyrologies under the date of 14 February. One is described as a priest at Rome, another as a Bishop of Interamna (now Terni in Italy) and the other lived and died in Africa.

The Bishop of Interamna is most widely accepted as the basis of the modern saint. He was an early Christian martyr who lived in northern Italy in the third century and was put to death on 14 February around 270AD on the orders of emperor Claudius the Second for flouting the ban on Christianity.

The date of his death is thought to have become linked with romance because it sees the first onset of spring and is said to be when birds select their mates.

However, the Scottish claims to his mortal remains do not find favour across the Irish Sea where the remains of St Valentine are said to repose in a casket held at Whitefriar Street Church in Dublin.

The Irish say they were passed on as a gift from Pope Gregory XVI to the respected Dublin Carmelite Father John Spratt.

While there is no way of telling whether the Scottish or Irish bones are the real remains of St Valentine, the Scottish monks hope the confusion will not detract from the true message of the saint's day - that martrydom is the highest form of love.

[BoldHighlander]

Cool Valentine trivia

Thanks for posting!

[Rex_Tremende]

Originally Posted by Larry124

In a most popular game, an equal number of men and women are made to write their names on a piece of paper which is then folded and placed into a hat. One hat is for ladies and the other one is for men. The female then draws one name from the men's hat and the chosen man has to stick with his Valentine throughout the party. Later on, gifts are exchanged and Valentine's Day is greeted with hugs and kisses.

The systems analyst in me wants to know what becomes of the hat full of the ladies' names.

Happy Valentine's Day, anyway,
Rex.