I haven’t sent a greeting card in at least a decade. A couple of weeks ago, however, a friend from back home contacted me to ask if I would be willing to help out her neighbor’s child with a class project.
She passed along a letter that read:
Kindergarteners are preparing to learn about our country next month! We will learn how to look at a map, use a compass rose to tell directions, and discuss some of the states! We are asking for your help! We need valentines sent to us! If you know anyone outside of Ohio that would be willing to send a valentine to your child at school, we would be so thankful! As we receive these valentines, we will chart them on the map and pin their location. Children will bring their valentines home at the end of the month when we finish our project! We will be mapping valentines the whole month of February!
J. Basil Dannebohm
Although I never would refuse a request from this particular hometown friend, I was especially delighted to honor this one.
A few days after receiving the request, I learned a member of Congress was collecting Valentine’s Day cards to send to Virginia’s Veterans Hospitals. This struck a sentimental chord with me. Many years ago, when I was administrator of my hometown’s Chamber of Commerce, I purchased a massive Christmas stocking for a project I called “Operation Stocking Stuffer.” The goal was to collect Christmas cards to fill the stocking. The cards were distributed at Kansas veterans’ hospitals.
Inspired by a friend and a member of Congress, both of whom I admire, I found myself in the greeting card aisle browsing the Valentine’s Day selection, searching for the perfect one to send a kindergartener and a veteran.
Some people refer to Valentine’s Day as a “Hallmark Holiday,” although at least one legend suggests the first Valentine was sent by the man himself: St. Valentine of Rome. It’s said the imprisoned would-be saint fell in love with his jailer’s daughter. According to this tale, Valentine wrote the young lady a note signed “from your Valentine.”
A millennia later in 15th-century France, the 14th of February became a day set aside to celebrate love. It was around that same time that a Frenchman sent what is said to be the earliest surviving Valentine.
Beginning of Charles’ poem “Je suis desja d’amour tanné” in a 15th-century copy of his personal manuscript: (The British Museum)
While imprisoned in the Tower of London, the Duke of Orleans wrote to his wife: “Je suis desja d’amour tanné, ma tres doulce Valentinée.” Which roughly translates, “I am already sick of love, my very gentle Valentine.” Today, the letter is part of the manuscript collection of the British Library, which also holds the oldest surviving Valentine’s letter written in the English language. That letter was written 62 years later, in 1477, by Margery Brews to her fiancé, John Paston, whom she referred to as, “right well-beloved Valentine.”
In 1784, perhaps the most familiar Valentine’s poem made its first appearance in a collection of nursery rhymes:
“The rose is red, the violet’s blue,
The honey’s sweet, and so are you.”
Valentine’s Day cards started gaining popularity in the 18th century, but it wasn’t until 1913 that Hallmark began selling them. So while the company cannot actually claim Valentine’s Day as a “Hallmark Holiday,” it estimates 145 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged annually, not including the children’s Valentines popular in classroom exchanges.
If the requests from both my friend and the congresswoman prove anything, it’s that Valentine’s Day cards don’t have to be sent exclusively between lovers. Receiving a Valentine, like we did in elementary school, has a remarkable way of warming one’s heart in the cold of February. Indeed, the act of sending a Valentine makes both the sender and the recipient feel good.
The act of sending a sentimental letter soothed the restless heart of St. Valentine and the Duke of Orleans as they passed the time in their prison cells. Many of us are prisoners of loneliness, bereavement, depression and sadness. Perhaps this Valentine’s Day we could start a new tradition of sending a greeting card to somebody whose heart has grown cold this winter. Although it’s a simple act, imagine the impact it could have on someone to receive a special card letting them know somebody cares.
In a world starved for love that seems to be growing more divided each day, perhaps a “Hallmark Holiday” is exactly what we need right now.
J. Basil Dannebohm is a writer, speaker, consultant, former Kansas legislator and intelligencer. His website is www.dannebohm.com. He is a member of the Virginia Press Association and the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. He writes from the Washington, D.C., metro in the Commonwealth of Virginia.