In the morning we went over the story of Valentine’s Day. There are lots of different stories of how Valentines Day started but this is the story we looked at today.

Valentine is the name of a person who lived  over 1000 years ago. There was an Emperor called Claudius who lived in Rome in a big palace. Claudius wanted lots of men to join his army and go and fight in different countries. Most men did not want to fight wars because it meant leaving their wives and families. This made Claudius very angry so he decided to make a new rule that people could not get married. He thought if men did not have wives and children then they would want to join his army. Valentine was a priest and one of his jobs was to marry people even though Claudius had banned people from getting married. Valentine would marry people secretly – sometimes at night, whispering so no one would hear them. Valentine was caught and sent to prison. Claudius said Valentine must be killed because he broke the law. When people heard what had happened to Valentine they felt very sad. Some people threw flowers and notes up to his prison window. One of the prison guards had a daughter who he let visit Valentine. They talked for hours and became very good friends. On the day that Valentine died he sent a message to her thanking her for her friendship. He signed it… from your Valentine.   It was the 14th of February. So now every year on the 14th of February people send Valentine cards to people they love and care for. Sometimes they want it to be a secret so they sign it, From your Valentine.

After we read through this story Mr Spence showed us a PowerPoint on Valentine’s Day Around the Wrold. We learned of different traditions and customs around the world:

• In Denmark they don’t give roses to their loved ones, they give white flowers called snowdrops.
• In South Korea, women give men chocolate on Valentin’s day but the men give women gifts on a different day. This is on the 14th of March and they call this White Day, traditionally they give non-chocolate sweets as gifts.
• In South Africa women traditionally follow an age-old custom called Lupercalia. Where they write the name of their love on a piece of paper and pin it to their sleeve on Valentine’s Day. This is where the saying ‘to wear your heart on your sleeve’ comes from.
• In Brazil Valentine’s Day is not celebrated in February, instead Brazilians celebrate ‘Dia dos Namarados’ on the 12th of June.
• In Wales they don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day they celebrate St. Dwunwen’s day as he is the Welsh Patron saint of love and friendship. This is done on the 25th of January.
• In Germany lovers exchange traditional Valentine’s Day gifts. It is popular to give giant ginger biscuits shaped as hearts with love messages written in the centre of the biscuit. It is also customary to present loved ones with a pig (figurine, picture, chocolate, etc) as they are thought to symbolize luck.
•  People in Taiwan celebrate Valentine’s Day twice a year, once in February (the 14th) and again on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month. Men buy bouquets of roses for their loved ones. The number of roses is very important as different numbers of roses mean different things: 1 red rose means ‘an only love’, 99 red roses mean ‘a forever love’ and 108 red roses mean ‘will you marry me?’

Here is how you say ‘I love you’ in each of the above countries:

• Denmark: Jeg Elsker Dig
• South Korea: Saranna Heuo
• South Africa: Ek het iou lief
• Brazil: te amo
• Welsh: ‘Rwy’n dy garu di
• Germany: Ich liebe dich
• Taiwan: góa ài lì

In the afternoon we made Valentine’s crafts. P4-7 made heart books for someone special. We wrote their name or Happy Valentine’s Day on the front then on the other pages we wrote down nice messages or drew pictures for that special person. They came out really well, we forgot to take pictures so here is an example of what it looks like without the writing.