Go Retro This Valentine's

A moveable card from the 1900's

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, people of all ages are gearing up to celebrate the day.  Left, Right and ‘Thoda Sa’ Centre collected the traditions around the day dating back to the 1400s from across the globe.  We hope that this article will help you (in true retro fashion) to get out-of-the-box ideas to win over your valentine with some old-fashioned charm that never goes out of  style.

Early Valentine Customs in England

Celebration of Valentine’s Day began in England as early as the 1400s.  Charles, the Duke of Orleans, a Frenchman, was captured during the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 and imprisoned in England.  Historians have found evidence that he sent a rhymed love letter from his cell in the Tower of London to his wife on Valentine’s Day. How’s that for some die-hard romance? 

3D valentines that open to stand by themselves
and fold for mailing

One of the oldest customs was the practice of writing women’s names on slips of paper and drawing them from a jar/urn.  The woman whose name was drawn by a man became his valentine.  She then received special attention and gifts from the man.  In some places, it was the tradition to gift one’s valentine a pair of gloves.  Wealthy men were known to throw fancy dress balls in honour of their valentine (loaded men having a ball ... as always, I guess).

 

In Britain and Italy, there was a belief that if an unmarried woman stood by her window since before sunrise on Valentine’s Day, the first man she saw would marry her (or at least, someone who looked like him!)  This belief finds a mention in Hamlet (1603) where Ophelia sings:

“Good ‘Morrow!  ‘Tis St Valentine’s Day

All in the morning betime

And I a maid at your window

To be your valentine!”

 

Many Valentine’s Day customs (to date) involve women being paired with their future husbands.  In one such custom from the 1700s, Englishwomen would write names of men on scraps of paper, each of which would be rolled in clay and dropped into water.  The first paper that rose to the surface was supposed to have the name of the woman’s true love (must be some really water-resistant paper, I’m sure, that first freed itself off of heavy and sticky stuff like clay AND then floated to the top…. that’s the power of love, baby).

A card by Louis Prang 
of Boston from the 1800's

 Another custom in the 1700s involved unmarried women pinning five bay leaves to their pillows (one in the centre and one in each of the corners) on the eve of Valentine’s Day.  If the charm worked, they would see their future husband in their dreams! (Necessitating them to remember their dreams on waking up)

 

In Derbyshire (a county in central England), unmarried women circled the church 3 or 12 times, repeating the following verse,

“I sow hempseed

Hempseed I sow

He that loves me best

Come after me now”

 

One particular description of Valentine’s Day during the 1700s mentions a group of men drawing their valentines’ names from a jar and pinning the same to their sleeves for several days before the event.  Guess now we know where the saying “wearing his heart on his sleeve” probably originated!

Present day Europe 

Romantic Valentine of 1830s from Britain

British children sing special Valentine’s Day songs and receive gifts of candy, fruit, or money.  In some parts of England, people bake special Valentine’s Day buns with caraway seed, raisins, or plums. 

 

In Denmark, people send pressed white flowers called snowdrops to their friends.  Men also send a type of valentine called gaekkebrev (joking letter), wherein they write a rhyme and sign the letter with dots instead of their name (the number of dots equalling the number of letters in the man’s name).  If the recipient guesses his name, she is gifted an Easter egg on Easter day.  But this situation is so made for heartbreak I should think, when the girl keeps dreaming until Easter (a good two months down the line) that it’s Peter, when it turns out it was Harry, and that Tim was actually Sid)

 

The tradition of signing valentines with dots can be found in Britain too (maybe that’s how they invented the Morse code).

The USA and Canada

The oldest American Valentine
from 1700's with a German Verse

Children mostly make their own valentines using paper doilies, red paper, pictures from magazines and craft items, utilizing their own creativity.  They then exchange these valentines with their friends in school and even gift the choicest ones to their parents (high hopes!).  Some schools are known to conduct classroom parties wherein all the valentines are collected in a decorated box and then drawn randomly.

An American Valentines from 1890's

 

Older students are known to hold Valentine’s Day dances and parties.   They also make candy baskets, gifts and place cards trimmed with cupids and hearts (many of which land up in waste baskets, I’m sure, following discoveries of devastating truths).  People also send flowers, candies/chocolates and gifts to their spouses (lucky ones) or sweethearts.

This American Valentine from the Civil War Period
had flaps that opened to reveal a Union Soldier
Writing to his Valentine

Commercialisation of Valentines

This Kate Greenaway card was 
printed in the 1880's

The first commercial valentines made their appearance as early as the 1800s.  They were usually blank inside for the sender to write a personal message.  In the late 1800s, British artist Kate Greenaway became famous for her valentines featuring charming pictures of happy children and beautiful gardens.

This Ether Howland card from 1850 has a
lace frame and stuffed satin center

 

Esther A Howland of Worcester, Massachusetts was one of the first US manufacturers of commercial valentines.  Her inspiration was a valentine from Great Britain in 1847.  She initially made samples and took orders from stores, going on to hire an all-women staff, when her business expanded to a $100,000-a-year enterprise.  Most of the valentines in the 1800s were hand painted and trimmed with stain, lace, ribbons.  Some were decorated with dried flowers.  Most of them had either a fat cupid or arrows piercing the heart painted on them.   Some were even decorated with pearls and stones!

Modern Valentines 

 Towards the end of 1800 and the early 1900s, a new trend set in of sending comic valentines with insulting messages, which were sold for a penny.  They were known as the penny dreadfuls (which have since become collector’s dreams, I guess).  One such penny dreadful is quoted below:

“‘Tis all in vain, your simpering looks,

You never can incline

With all your bustles, stays and curls,

To find a valentine”

(Hmm, smacks of sour grapes…...the sender found out she fancied someone else!)

 

So dear readers, these were some quaint customs and traditions from around the world on Valentine’s Day.  As you begin planning personal celebrations, let us know if there were any you chose to make your Valentine’s day different from the rest (retro is in, remember?).  And if you are interested in knowing the history behind Valentine's Day, you can find it here (St Valentine’s Day - The Legend V/s Myth).

 

Credits:  All the pictures in this post have been taken from The World Book Encyclopaedia Vol 20; I inherited the whole set from my father. (Thanks Daddy, for making Valentine’s Day 2021 memorable -- not to mention how many others!)