A Regency Round-Up on Valentine’s Day

Regency Valentine: Oldest mailed Valentine's card from 1790, now at British Postal Museum. — This handmade puzzle card is from 1790, now kept at the British Postal Museum, is not for sale. Text on face of the card reads:
“My dear the Heart which you behold,
Will break when you the same unfold,
Even so my heart with lovesick pain,
Sure wounded is and breaks in twain.”

There isn’t a lot of information available regarding how Valentine’s Day was celebrated in the early 19th Century. Most Regency Valentine’s cards (mostly handmade love letters) were considered ephemera and not held onto except in rare circumstances. You’ll notice I didn’t title this post as a primer, because I didn’t feel I could speak on the topic with much authority. I could have gone with the language of flowers for today’s topic, but many others have done that as well, and I didn’t feel it was limited to Valentine’s Day as it is now.

The commercialization of Valentine’s Day, as well as Christmas, can be laid at the feet of the Victorians. Industrialization was in full-swing and mass production of cards and trinkets was easier and cheaper than ever before. The Regency swains would have had to be much more resourceful, personal and creative to present their sweethearts with something memorable. Lucky, ladies! However, in the early 19th century, it wasn’t just the upper class that was sending notes and tokens of love and affection to their sweethearts, but something that was done across all classes.

Regency Valentine: Oldest printed Valentine's Day Card from 1797. — The oldest “printed” card was published in January 1797 by John Fairburn of 146, Minories, London. The text around the edge reads:
"Since on this ever Happy day,
All Nature’s full of Love and Play
Yet harmless still if my design,
‘Tis but to be your Valentine."

Instead of distilling many similar posts down today, I’m going to link you directly to the sources I would have used in penning today’s primer.

Ruth Axtell’s Reflections on Valentine’s Day at the Christian Regency blog

Bronwen Evans’ A Regency Valentine’s Day on her blog

Elaine Golden’s Getting Ready for Valentine’s Day? post at GoodReads

Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee’s Valentine’s Day! post at Risky Regencies

Loretta Chases’ Valentine’s Day in the early 19th century at Two Nerdy History Girls

Susan Holloway Scott’s post A Father Warns Against the “Depravity” of Valentines at Two Nerdy History Girls

Wishing you a happy Valentine’s Day!

Love is in the air

Happy Valentine’s Day!

It’s time once again for hearts, chocolates, diamonds (no dear, that’s not a hint) and of course free reads from the Romance Divas, who have just wrapped up their third annual e-book challenge where the members are encouraged to write a story and put it up for free.

THE DIVAS E-BOOK CHALLENGE 2009 has some great stories by some fantastic people. Do yourself a favor and ~~run~~ click, don’t ~~walk~~ miss a chance to check out these stories. Stay in the Valentine’s mood! Enjoy a bit more romance!

BTW: if you missed the previous years’ editions: 2007 and 2008.

Diva Free Reads

Romance Divas has just wrapped up their second annual e-book challenge where the members were encouraged to write a story and put it up for free.

THE DIVAS E-BOOK CHALLENGE 2008 has some great stories by some fantastic people. Do yourself a favor and ~~run~~ click, don’t ~~walk~~ miss a chance to check out these stories. Stay in the Valentine’s mood! Enjoy a bit more romance!

I didn’t finish what I wanted in time, but next year!

I’m also going to be a bit scarce for the coming week as I’ve got family visiting.

BTW: if you missed last year’s edition: go here.

Thursday Thirteen: Today In History

13 Valentine’s Day Occurrences

Happy Valentine’s Day! No sappy trivia today (see yesterday’s post for that)! Below are just a few of things that occurred on Valentine’s Day in history. There were a lot of others I thought were cool, but had to zap to pare it down to thirteen.

1 ) 278 AD Saint Valentine is beheaded, contributing in part to the origins of the Valentine’s Day holiday.

2 ) 1076 Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Henry IV

3 ) 1689 English parliament places Mary Stuart/Prince Willem III on the throne

4 ) 1766 Thomas Robert Malthus, British economist born.

5 ) 1778 The Stars and Stripes of the United States is seen abroad for the first time, flying on a U.S. vessel in a French port.

6 ) 1848 James K. Polk became 1st President photographed in office by Matthew Brady

7 ) 1889 1st train load of fruit (oranges) leaves Los Angeles for east

8 ) 1918 U.S.S.R. adopts New Style (Gregorian) calendar (originally Feb 1)

9 ) 1929 Disguised as Chicago police officers and detectives, Al Capone’s mobsters take out six of George “Bugs” Moran’s gang in a warehouse. The infamous event will become known as the Saint Valentine’s Day massacre.

10) 1967 Aretha Franklin records “Respect”

11) 1971 Richard Nixon installs secret taping system in White House

12) 1978 1st “micro on a chip” patented by Texas Instruments

13) 1990 Space probe Voyager 1 takes photograph of entire solar system

1 Susan Helene Gottfried	2 Lazy Daisy	3 Winter
4 Nicholas	5 Alice Audrey	6 Di
7 Jennifer McKenzie	8 Lynne	9 Gwen Mitchell
10 OneLuvGurl	11 Brenda	12 Paige Tyler

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Love is in the air…

So… Tomorrow’s Valentine’s Day. I often wonder how someone like me who used to rejoice when the annual Black Hearts Ball rolled around on Feb 14th came to want to write romance?

Back in high school, I got dumped on Valentine’s Day. Yeah, a real kick in the teeth. I didn’t realize it at the time or for quite a while after, but he actually did me a favor. I would still be stuck in the middle of nowhere living a dead-end life doing a dead-end job to make ends meet and babysitting grandchildren already.

Instead, I went farther away from home to college. I had a bad attitude about the male half of the population and didn’t give any of them much credit. I harbored my share of fruitless crushes and enjoyed the vicarious love and relationships between the pages of every romance novel I got my hands on. Men? I liked ’em, but hadn’t met any yet.

Then, beginning of my senior year, sitting in my History of American Music class with my friend Qui doing our usual scoping to amuse ourselves instead of paying attention, when I spotted this new guy wearing thick nerdy plastic glasses, a ratty rust-colored corduroy jacket, shaggy hair and a raggy t-shirt sitting there taking serious notes (although now I suspect he was doodling). I forget what had me so down that day, but I remember thinking, “Ya know, with my luck, I’ll end up marrying someone like him.”

These days, I wonder at my good fortune! I think we still may owe the guy he ended up rooming with the next year a debt for making us sit down on a week before Valentine’s Day (no pressure there!) and come to a decision on why we weren’t a couple like everyone else already assumed.

The fall of my senior year was one of my worst. I was extremely depressed on many fronts and I had little patience for dealing with people. Finally, I realized this guy “wasn’t people”. I kept spending time in his company when I didn’t want to face anyone else. I would never finished my senior thesis without him either. The ethic of “if I have to work, so do you!” has lasted which is one reason I focus better during chat challenges knowing someone else is working as well.

Eighteen years later, we’re happy, comfortable and have lived in both interesting and hellish places. Our two kids may drive us crazy at times, but I don’t think we’d really try to return them at this point.

I admit I’m not good at celebrating people, but I believe there are people in our lives we are destined to meet and connect with. I’m just lucky I found mine and didn’t end up with a toad. I still enjoy reading romances because of the escape from everyday situations and glimpses at a slower lifestyle. As for writing romance, I want to discover what my characters can teach me about showing and sharing love more consciously.