The cold month of February is not only about the weather, but about the romantic holiday that partakes on the 14th! Valentine’s Day is not just all about buying stuff for your partner to show your appreciation, there’s a pretty cool backstory behind the lovey dovey holiday.
Valentine’s Day dates all the way back to Roman times, not originally even called as such. The original name of Valentine’s was Lupercalia, which is a pagan festival of fertility. The tradition went like this: A group of priests would take the lupraci and gather in a sacred cave to do a ritual. They would sacrifice a goat and take the blood from it to anoint themselves with it, then they would take wool dipped in milk to wash away the blood, hence the colors red and white being very popular on the holiday. After rinsing themselves with the milk, they’d take part of the goat hide and run around the streets naked, slapping women who got too close to them with the hide. Some women would jump out on purpose, exposing parts of their skin to be slapped, as it was said to dramatically increase a woman’s fertility, ward against infertility and even decrease labour pains if they were slapped. Preceding that, men would draw women’s names from a jar and then spend the rest of the festival with their chosen partner and if there was enough of a spark, they would get married.
Although this is the origin of Valentine’s Day, it definitely is not the same now. The point of valentine’s day today is to celebrate the ones you love dearly, whether familial, romantic or platonic. With said day coming up, here are some cute and personal gifts you could make for your partner or friend!
First off, homemade flowers. Flowers are a common gift, however they don’t last and they can be pricey especially around this time of year. Instead, making flowers is much more efficient, lasting as long as you want them to and they save you money! Some of the materials you could use are paper, plastic spoons, guitar pics and even pipe cleaners. There are plenty of tutorials on apps such as TikTok and YouTube!
Second is any kind of baked good. There are so many “Valentine’s Day sweet treat” recipes online that are super easy and tasty! Even if some of them are too complicated, simple chocolate chip cookies or box brownies would still be amazing!
Lastly, handwritten notes. They don’t have to be crazy long or crazy complicated but handwritten letters really show how much you care about whoever you’re writing to!
