Valentine's Day is a day dedicated to romance. A day when relationships can be made or broken just by the choice, or lack, of a card or a gift. What's the history behind this day? I turned to two books for some answers. One is a book called Celebrations, an older book which discusses a variety of celebrations. Celebrations gives three possible stories behind Valentine's Day. It could be "a Christianized version of the Feast of Lupercalia which was celebrated during the third century in honor of the god Lupercus who protected Roman shepherds from wolves". It could also be in honor of "Valentine, the young Christian priest who was imprisoned for secretly marrying lovers after marriage was outlawed during the reign of emperor Claudius". Another story tells of Valentine being beheaded on February 14 for curing his jailer's daughter of blindness or perhaps beheaded for sending the jailer's daughter love notes signed "from your Valentine". None of these stories would seem to inspire a day dedicated to lovers.

The second book is a reference book titled The folklore of world holidays. This book supports the story of a "martyred priest named Valentine (or possibly two priests, both named Valentine) who died between A.D.270 and A.D. 273". It also discusses some interesting past Valentine traditions. Did you know that : "birds chose their mates on February 14; in Great Britain, girls ate a hard-boiled egg with the yolk replaced with salt to dream of their future husband; in Europe, American servicemen spread the custom of sending valentines on February 14 ; and, in Italy it was popular to announce engagements on Valentine's Day.

Flowers, cards and candy are recognized as Valentine's Day traditions. About.com has some statistics showing what we spend our money on for Valentine's Day. One of those statistics concerns candy. Thirty-six million heart shaped boxes of candy were sold last Valentine's Day. That must have spread a lot of happiness! Heart-shaped boxes of candy may soon be past history! If you like M&Ms, you can now special order them with your choice of color, message and in 8 different flavors. If you are a fan of conversation hearts, those small candy hearts with the sayings on them, Necco candy has a website which shows the new sayings for 2007 as well as being loaded with candy heart trivia!

So, whether you like candy, flowers, hearts or Red Sox tickets, hope someone says "I love you" to you today!