Don't you just LOVE Valentine's Day??? We do!!! We get to make cards for all of our friends and family and tell them how much we LOVE them! And we LOVE to play Valentine's Day games. Would you like to play? Just click on each "special Valentine LOVE link" to find a great web site that may be a game page, a coloring page, a learning page, great recipes or some other fun place to visit....

Want to send an eValentine? Visit 123Greetings.com
You'll even find a link there back to us!!!!

Some Valentine's Day History....

Valentines Day started during the rule of Emperor Claudius II. Rome had been involved in many bloody and unpopular wars. Yuck!!! Claudius the Cruel, as he was known, was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join the military. He believed the reason was because Roman men didn't want to leave their LOVEs or families. As a result, Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome. That wasn't very nice, was it?

There was a Christian priest named Valentine who defended LOVE in the empire. Valentine began to secretly marry couples despite the Emperor's orders. When Emperor Claudius was informed of these ceremonies, Valentine was sent to prison where he remained until his death on February 14 in the year 270. What an amazing sacrifice for LOVE!

It wasn't until hundreds of years later that Valentine's Day began to develop as we know it. At the time of Valentine's death, Christianity was beginning to take control of Europe. The Church sought to do away with pagan holidays. Valentine's Day came to replace a mid-February fertility festival called Lupercalia. In honor of his sacrifice for LOVE, Valentine was made a saint and Lupercalia renamed in his honor.

Today, the tradition of honoring St. Valentine continues. The themes of LOVE and fertility taken from the ancient meanings of the holiday have endured and evolved into today's contemporary theme.

We think it is very interesting to know the history of holidays because they usually have changed so much from the original reason for the special day. Wow, next holiday coming up is St. Patrick's Day!!! You know we LOVE that day!!!!