Exercises

On Valentine�s Day

Photos courtesy of Bangkok Post

Valentine�s Day is a day like no other. Romantics everywhere celebrate Valentine�s Day in all sorts of ways. It is on this day that people are able to set aside their differences and come together to express their love and affection for one another. This week�s Exercises takes a look at some stories about Valentine�s Day.

POSSIBLE ORIGINS

* Although there were several Christian martyrs named Valentine, the day probably took its name from a priest who was killed around AD 270 by the Roman emperor Claudius II Gothicus. According to legend, the priest had fallen in love with his jailer�s daughter and signed a letter to her: �From Your Valentine.�

* The day may also have originated in the ancient Roman celebration of the Feast of Lupercalia in honour of Juno, the queen of the Roman gods. Juno was also the goddess of women and marriage, so honouring her was thought to be a fertility rite.

At the feast held the next day, the women would write love letters and stick them in a large urn. The men would pick a letter from the urn and for the next year, pursue the woman who wrote the chosen letter. This custom lasted for centuries.

THE FIRST CARDS

* The custom of exchanging cards and other tokens of love on February 14 began to develop in England and France in the 14th and 15th centuries. It became especially popular in the US in the 19th and 20th centuries.

* In England in 1477, Margery Brews sent a letter to her fiancé, John Paston of Norfolk, addressing him as �My right well-beloved Valentine.�

* In the US, the first commercially produced cards were manufactured in 1834 by Robert H. Elton of New York .

VALENTINE�S DAY STORIES

* Since 1994, couples have chosen to marry on the 80th floor of the Empire State Building in New York City.

* On Valentines Day 2002, two male and six female elephants were married at a ceremony in Ayutthaya.

* In 2003, the Galeries Lafayette department store in Paris invited those seeking love to a dating session on February 13, for seven-minute meetings with seven potential partners.

* In 2006, hard-line Hindu groups and radical Muslims burned Valentine�s Day greeting cards and held protests across India against celebrating the festival of love, saying it was a Western import that spread immorality.

* In China, three policemen were punished for detaining and fining two young lovers 5,000 yuan (21,500 baht) for hugging in public on the Chinese version of Valentine�s Day, on August 31, 2007. The couple paused to embrace while taking a stroll along a river in Jinshi in the central province of Hunan.

Exercise

Read the story. Then, answer the following reading comprehension questions.

1. Why did a group of Hindus and Muslims burn Valentine�s Day greeting cards?

2. Who did the priest fall in love with?

3. Where were the elephants married?

4. When were the first commercially produced cards in the US manufactured?

	martyr (n): a person who suffers or is killed because of their religious or political beliefs originate (v): to happen or appear for the first time in a particular place or situation fertility (n): the state of being able to produce babies rite (n): a ceremony performed by a particular group of people, often for religious purposes feast (n): a large or special meal, especially for a lot of people and to celebrate something urn (n): a tall decorated container pursue (v): to follow or chase somebody, especially in order to catch them token (n): something that is a symbol of a feeling, a fact, an event, etc. fiancé (n): the man that a woman is engaged to detain (v): to keep somebody in an official place, such as a police station, a prison or a hospital, and prevent them from leaving embrace (v): to put your arms around somebody as a sign of love or friendship