Valentine’s Day Jewellery: The Perfect Gift for your Sweetheart!
Do you realise that it’s almost Valentine’s Day – again? And how are you going to celebrate that? What did you do last year? Flowers, especially red roses, soar in price around February 14, of course, but the cost of a beautiful piece of jewellery doesn’t go up. And Valentine’s Day jewellery lasts forever. That’s a gift that makes Valentine’s Day even more special.
The ancient Roman spring festival of cleansing and rebirth, Lupercalia, which would become Saint Valentine’s Day, was held from 13-15 February, when work could start in the vineyards and fields after the long, icy winter, and birds began to mate again. Lupercalia was celebrated loudly with sacrifices and feasting, and a race where men in goatskins lashed out with whips at women to encourage fertility and alleviate the pain of giving birth.
Two Saint Valentines were martyred in Rome on 14 February in the third century, imprisoned for helping persecuted Christians. One is said to have married soldiers against the Emperor’s command, cut hearts out of parchment and miraculously restored his jailer’s blind daughter’s sight. He sent her a card signed Your Valentine before being clubbed to death, and she planted an almond tree in his memory. History is blood-stained.
Then, in the Middle Ages, Chaucer wrote the first Valentine’s Day poem, Parlement of Foules, linking the festival with love, and it was celebrated with feasting, dancing, jousting and poetry, which, four hundred years later, became flowers, sweets, cards and keys.
In the nineteenth century Valentine’s Day cards were made of real or paper lace and ribbons, and, when the postage stamp was issued, more and more cards were sent, often anonymously with indelicate messages.
However, in the 1980s, the diamond industry decided to promote gifts of diamonds on Valentine’s Day, and now it is second only to Christmas commercially. Chocolates, flowers, lingerie and jewellery are the most popular Valentine’s Day gifts, and most men propose marriage on Christmas Eve or Valentine’s Day – and in March chemists sell more pregnancy tests.
We Design the Perfect Valentine’s Day Jewellery for Her!
History lesson over – come up to Diamonds by Design or to Anania and see what we have to tempt you, or let us design something for you. There’s still time before February 14. And it may even change your life.
